Strike Witches: Battleship
by Thorthemighty321
Summary: Here is the rewrite for my Battleship/Strike Witches crossover! Here we go on the summary. Fate could be a bitch: Captain Alex Hopper has been in command of the new Bunker Hill-class Destroyer for six months. It was a command he didn't want. Trying to escape enemy forces, Hopper orders his ship into a squall. They come out of the squall in a totally different world.
1. Prolouge

**A/N: I don't own anything save the OCs; so grab a refreshment, take a seat, and let's get this show rolling!**

 **OC stuff:**

 **Start of an Intelligence report on the Aristocratic Republic of Toria**

 **The Aristocratic Republic of Toria**

 **This nation is located where Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand is today.**

 **Population: Roughly 3 billion maybe more**

 **Area: The sum total of the former nations that form the Republic of Toria**

 **You can find the information on the** _ **Yukon**_ **-class Guided Missile Cruiser, the** _ **Bunker Hill**_ **-class Guided Missile Destroyer, and the** _ **Fubuki**_ **-class Guided Missile Destroyer on my profile page. I will be updating it with the specifications of other OC ships I come up with as this story progresses.**

 **This story takes place in 2020**

 **XXXX**

They were running, plain and simple. Captain Alex Hopper was standing on the starboard bridge wing on the relatively new _Bunker Hill_ -class Guided Missile Destroyer USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-1006 third ship in her class; all Hopper had been before he had been thrust into the command position again on the same ship was a simple First Officer, before that he had been a SEAL for six years before that the reason for him leaving the SEALs was a touchy subject for him, and before that he had been the Tactical Actions Officer on the _Alreigh Burke_ -class Guided Missile Destroyer USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-53. But fate decided to be a royal bitch, because in their first engagement against the Naval Forces of The Aristocratic Republic of Toria (ART), an enemy ASM had exploded with ten feet of the bridge spraying it with shrapnel that had killed not only the captain, one of the Bridge Lookouts, and numerous other crew men do to shrapnel. Somehow the Helmsman, Boatswains Mate Seaman Jimmy 'Ordy' Ord, Master Chief Petty Officer Walter "The Beast" Lynch, and a few others had not been by shrapnel but they had been stunned by what had happened.

Now six months later, the combined American, British, Japanese, Australian Flotilla had been completely routed, their numbers having been ruthlessly slashed by disaster, constant action, and wear and tear. The battle that had put the nail in the coffin for the ABJA Float had been the Battle of the Java Sea. Which had seen the complete destruction of Admiral Gato and his fleet sometime past midnight save for the JS _Fubuki_ DDG-179, USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-1006, USS _Concord_ CG-78, HMAS _Hobart_ DDGH 39, and HMS _Iron Duke_ F234.

"Bridge, CIC." The 42MC crackled. It was Lt. Cora "Weps" Raikes. Hopper stepped inside the bridge and picked up the talker. "Bridge, go ahead Weps." Hopper said.

"Captain, Visual contact with the enemy achieved. They are coming up fast and considering that the _Concord_ can only make 25 knots we are limited to her speed. Not that we are in much better shape either. Worse the enemy ships are _Howler_ -class Guided Missile Cruisers, we tangled with six of them at Java Sea and we know for a fact that the fleet managed to send two to the bottom, given how many ASMs they were flinging at us, they are probably either close too or are out of ASMs." Weps replied.

"I see, how many _Howler_ -class Guided Missile Cruisers? How many supporting ships?" Hopper asked. Raikes's answer was swift and while a bit terse matched the situation "Four _Howler_ -class Guided Missile Cruisers and four _Demon_ -class Destroyers, sir." She said.

"Alright, thanks Weps. You have done damn fine work as the Tactical Actions Officer." Hopper said.

"Thanks, sir." Raikes said then hung up. Hopper placed the talker back in its holder.

"Alright, I know we have been General Quarters for god three hours. But might as well sound it again just so that the crew knows we have bad guys about to start firing at us." Hopper said.

"Yessir" Beast said. A few moments later the distinctive klaxon on the _JPJ_ sounded a rapid fire set of three gongs in a row. Crew members sprang to their stations the brief period of rest was now over. For there was work to do. "Main Battery Manned and Ready, Engine Room Manned and Ready, all stations are manned and ready." Beast said after 2 minutes 38 seconds.

"Good to hear." Hopper said then frowned as he felt a reverberating groan pass through the deck of the bridge. "Did you just feel that?" Hopper asked, Beast nodded. "If we can get her ( _John Paul Jones_ or _JPJ_ as she was often called) to a dry dock. I want to find out what is causing it." He said. "Another thing it could be, sir. Is that have you ever heard about how the Japanese go on about ships have their own spirits and such?" Beast asked, that confused Hopper but he got the gist of what Beast was saying. "Yeah, I think so. So what do you think it is Beast?" Hopper asked. Beast smiled then patted a bulkhead lovingly " _JPJ_ might be nervous or scared. To be frank considering how many ships we have lost. I wouldn't blame her if she felt that way." Beast said. "That makes some sense as well Beast. Either way we have a battle to focus on here." Hopper said and Beast nodded.

The five ships, a frigate, three destroyers, and a cruiser continued their flight, yet were losing ground to the enemy hand over fist, Weps had been correct the four _Howler_ -class Guided Missile Cruisers were out of ASMs. The four _Demon_ -class Destroyers wouldn't be a threat for quite a while because while they did have missiles they carried no ASMs only SAMs and ASROCs; the primary anti-ship weapon for the _Demon_ -class Destroyers was three 100mm guns two fore in a double turret and one aft in a single turret. The _Howler_ -class Cruisers were another matter as they had a VLS system similar to the Mk57 PVLS, they can carry nearly 145 missiles; a combination of SAMs, ASMs, and ASROCs, they also had forward a pair of powerful double turrets each mounting a pair of 8in/75 caliber guns.

That was when the 42MC squawked. "Captain! The enemy has opened fire! Rounds incoming! Worse with the amount of CWIS they have, the few ASMs we have left roughly a twenty or so won't make it through same with 10 Tomahawk Cruise missiles that we have." Weps said.

Sure enough a few seconds later several towering splashes erupted as the shells impacted. A few moments later with a powerful sonic boom that shook all the windows on the _John Paul Jones_ the aft railgun on the _Concord_ discharged and her return fire was a hell of a lot more accurate. The 15lb "heavy" railgun slug covered the 27 kilometers in a matter of seconds. The blazing blue streak impaled one of the _Demon_ -class Destroyers right in the bow, the shell tore right through the destroyer, passing through all of the main magazines, CIC, the engine room, and the VLS; the ship just ceased existing, exploding into a titanic black and orange fireball that was went hurtling skyward the broken remains of the destroyer quickly slipped beneath the waves. Cheers erupted throughout the fleet as the enemy ship was sent to the bottom in pieces.

More 8in rounds dropped from the sky sending towering splashes hurtling skyward; the enemy fire was getting more accurate. Another railgun round erupted from the _Concord_ this time the round "grazed" one of the _Howlers_ , however we are talking about something that is going Mach 7 here, the damage was catastrophic. The slug ripped the majority of the front of the superstructure on the right side completely away sending it tumbling into the ocean. "Signal the _Concord_! What the hell was that?" Hopper bellowed stunned at seeing the sixth round that the _Concord_ had fired almost completely missing the target.

"Captain, getting a response from the radio room. The _Concord_ has just sent a message. It says that their Fire Control is out; they haven't suffered any hits as of yet. It just went kaput on them, they are in local control now." Beast said with creeping dread.

Alex cursed under his breath. Without the advanced fire control system to help aim the railgun and take into account the motions of the ship; the chances of actually scoring a hit had just dropped to practically nothing. Now all the person who was manning that gun had to do when he pulled the trigger was cross his fingers and hope for a hit.

Then the 42MC squawked again; it was Raikes. "Captain; I have eyes on ten enemy _Phantom_ -class corvettes coming our way. They must be making 42 knots!" She said franticly.

"SHIT!" Hopper cursed he then picked up the talker "Raikes get after them! You are free to engage at will! Do not I repeat do not use any of our ASMs against them; the ECM they have is too good." Hopper ordered. "Yes sir!" Raikes replied.

 **XXXX**

Inside CIC Raikes took a deep breath then barked orders "Alright! Stream the Nixie! Ramirez! Hit those bastards with the 155! Commence firing!" She yelled. The high-pitched scream of a winch sounded as the Nixie torpedo decoy was streamed behind the surging _John Paul Jones_ moments later the deck vibrated as the 155mm gun traversed and then fired lobbing a shell that weighed nearly 200lbs toward the enemy corvettes. The damn things looked as if a South Korean _Incheon_ -class Frigate and a _Brooke_ -class frigate had a baby; they had a single centerline quadruple torpedo tube mount amidships, aft they had a missile launcher similar to a Mark 13 Single Arm Missile Launcher, forward they had a single 57mm gun, and amidships two CWIS emplacements one port and one starboard. The 155mm shell that was sent their way went screaming over the enemy ship.

Raikes monitored the progress of the enemy ships; her eyes widened when she came to the realization what they doing. "Ramirez! Get after them! They are angling for the _Concord_!" She barked. The rate at which the plates vibrated increased as the 155mm gun began to fire at an astounding rate of ten rounds per minute. Suddenly one of the corvettes lurched as a shell slammed into it the hit appeared to come from the _Iron Duke_ ; followed by three more impaling the thing, and orange fireball erupted from it amidships. It came to groaning halt, crippled and out of the fight. Then one of the video screens showed something horrifying happen to the _Concord_.

 **XXXX**

"CAPTAIN! THE _CONCORD_ HAS BEEN HIT!" Ordy shouted as an 8in/75 caliber Armor Piercing round plunged into the cruiser amidships and exploded. It must have been carnage below decks Hopper thought as two more shells slammed into the _Concord_ and this time a massive explosive convulsed the _Yukon_ -class Guided Missile Cruiser. With the span of forty five seconds the _Concord_ had suffered three citadel penetrations which had ruthlessly mangled CIC and the engine room among the spaces wrecked. The _Concord_ 's speed dropped to damn near nothing, her engines destroyed; she was helpless to the enemy as more 8in/75 caliber rounds rained down on the _Concord_ and impacting her, she was _already_ doomed! Yet the Republic of Toria bastards didn't give a shit.

Then the enemy corvettes heeled over to and began to turn away from them as the railgun on the _Fubuki_ finally, _finally_ got a shot that didn't put the _Iron Duke_ in danger of being hit. The railgun discharged a blue streak impaled one of the enemy corvettes the velocity of the shell, combined with the amount of kinetic energy that the shell had, and lastly suddenly meeting resistance imparted most of that kinetic energy right into the corvette's hull, caused amazing damage in the form of downright ripping it in half as the 8lb slug of dense ferrous metal slammed into it.

"HELL YEAH!" Ordy shouted as he watched the carnage brought on the railgun shot from the _Fubuki_.

 _Wait a second, something isn't right. Why would the enemy come in like that and then heel away like that?_ Hopper thought, he then came to a stunning revelation. "Ordy! Course correction! Bring us in perpendicular to the route that those enemy corvettes approached from!" Hopper snapped out. "Sir?" Ordy asked confused. "Do it! There might be torpedoes in the water!" Hopper shouted, he then grabbed the talker and dialed the radio room and ordered "Signalman Troy! Send this to the other ships in our formation "Enemy torpedoes likely in the water, I am evading."." Hopper said. As the _John Paul Jones_ swung sharply toward the incoming torpedoes, sure enough Hopper had been correct and three torpedoes passed extraordinarily close to the Guided Missile Destroyer, the closest one coming within three feet of the hull. _Good god that was too close!_ Hopper thought. He then remembered that the _Concord_ wasn't going to be able to dodge those torpedoes. Hopper looked back and saw several dozen life rafts in the water as well as all four zodiacs in the water and moving desperately to get away from the _Concord_ when four torpedoes hit, multiple towering columns of water went skyward as the torpedoes delivered their 1000lb warhead on target. The _Concord_ rapidly rolled onto her side, landing on top of some the lifeboats that were in the water, the Cruiser rapidly began to sink as her battered hull just couldn't take the punishment anymore.

 **XXXX**

After seeing the destruction of the most powerful member in their group that was fleeing from the enemy. The crews knew that it was only a matter of time before they met their impending fate…one by one. The _Hobart_ was next; and her end came with horrific suddenness. A salvo of ranging shots screamed in from one of the cruisers. Hopper actually saw the shells glint silver in the sunlight as they screamed toward them. The shells seemed to march across the Aussie Destroyer and several explosions rocked the Destroyer. As the spray cleared; it revealed a twisted burning wreck that couldn't even be considered a destroyer anymore. The shells had been high-explosive, the rounds had demolished the superstructure and had mangled the stern so severely that it was insane. She was quickly sinking by the stern, as the last ship in the line the _John Paul Jones_ went by; the _Hobart_ was down nearly sixteen degrees by the stern and sinking rapidly.

That was when the bridge switchboard buzzed. "Captain Radio room; message from the _Iron Duke_ make for the squall." Signalman Troy said. "Thanks" Hopper replied over the same circuit. "Ordy, follow the _Iron Duke_ and the _Fubuki_ into that squall." Hopper ordered.

"Yes sir!" Ordy replied and turned the wheel on the _JPJ_ and she went after the _Iron Duke_ and the _Fubuki_ ; first the British Frigate, then the Japanese Destroyer entered the squall, followed by the _John Paul Jones_.

The three warships made constant course corrections to stay in the squall as long as possible. "Captain, we are exiting the Squall." One of the bridge lookouts said. "Roger that. Ordy, be ready to perform evasive maneuvers; let's see what awaits us on the other side." Hopper said.

"Yes sir" Ordy said.

Moments later the sharp clipper bow of the _John Paul Jones_ came out of the squall. Followed in short order by the Type-23 Frigate _Iron Duke_ and then the _Fubuki_. Suddenly the 42MC squawked "Captain! Enemy strike fighters! Directly above us!" Raikes shouted terrified as the CWIS systems on the _JPJ_ , _Fubuki_ , and the _Iron Duke_ roared to life. Streams of tracers raced upward to meet the enemy fighters, the Laser based CWIS systems began to pick out targets, every now and again burning a wound the size of Beast's fist into an enemy plane that went completely through the airplane or just blowing it up. The _JPJ_ heeled sharply over the left and eight 1000lb bombs impacted the ocean where the ship would have been in a few moments. Hopper watched as the enemy strike fighter responsible climbed and banked away. The plane was a single engine with thrust-vectoring, mid-wing, cranked arrow delta wing design, with canards revealing it to Hopper as an ART Slaviki or Sl-21N Firehawk, a lethal strike fighter with capabilities on par with that of the Su-37 Flanker-F. A brief burst of 25mm shells streaked after it connected and the back end of the plane disintegrated, the now tailless plane tumbled just before the impact the canopy blew off and the pilot ejected.

The enemy air attack subsided within seven minutes the twenty or so strike fighters responsible for launching the attack retreated ordinance expended, with half of their original number gone. Hopper was just beginning to think they had gotten away unscathed when he saw the _Iron Duke_. The staunch Type 23 frigate was done for. Her superstructure was a burning mess and twisted beyond recognition, everything forward of the Harpoon Missile launchers was gone, and she had a pair of massive gashes in the side of her hull. "The _Iron Duke_ , she's gone. My god. We are all that's left. Plus those were carrier planes, they will be back soon." Beast said.

"I know, Beast. However we have been in situations worse than this, hell we know what it is like to be the only ones who are left. This has happened to us once before. So, how about we make a dash, going from squall to squall making smoke in between each squall. Once we know we have shaken those enemy cruisers, we turn south and make a dash for Brisbane." Hopper said.

"Captain, you are damn right. Let's do it." Beast said as he engaged the 2MC switch for the engine room "Mr. Burns let's make a little smoke." Beast ordered. Hopper caught a curt "Yes sir!" in response.

"Alright plot a course for the squall bearing 298 engines ahead standard. Signal the _Fubuki_ to follow us!" Hopper ordered. "Yes sir!" Ordy and one of the Bridge wing look outs said.

 **XXXX**

The two ships spent nearly forty-five minutes dashing from squall to squall heading east and toward relative safety. During that time they managed to lose the four pursing cruisers, avoided another strike from enemy planes however there weren't as many as there was last time. As the two ships exploded out from another squall. Another squall loomed, this one was different. It was a towering thunderhead, climbing to 45,000 feet and seemed to be absorbing another squall, that squall was black as could be, and lighting was seen pulsating inside, it gave off a vibe that said something ominous was going on inside; yet emerging from that squall appeared another two Republic of Toria Warships.

The first one was a new, sleek destroyer that had a hull shape similar to a _Zumwalt_ -class DDG and a superstructure that was similar to a _La Fayette_ -class General Purpose Frigate and the other was a massive capital ship that dwarfed even the Mighty Mo'. "Holy crap" Ordy breathed. Hopper looked at that the thing through his binoculars picking out key features of the monstrous capital ship. He grimaced as he lowered his binoculars. "That gentlemen, is the _Dragon_ -class Battleship _Devastator_. She is nearly as big as a _Nimitz_ -class Aircraft Carrier, has six 20in guns in three turrets, sixteen 152mm guns for her secondary split evenly so eight guns per side in double turrets, plus numerous smaller guns; these are 57mm guns in single and twin turrets, she also has something that is unique to her alone six twin-arm missile launchers instead of eight single-arm missile launchers; three port and three starboard, plus she has a metric shit ton of CWIS. Her hull shape is derived from the _Yamato_ -class of Battleship while her superstructure is based on that the _Montana_ -class of Battleship would have used if they had been built. She doesn't even need that destroyer she can take us by herself, even if both of our ships weren't as battered as they are." Hopper said in a dead-pan voice.

"Sir, I recommend we engage ECM and destroy that DD before she becomes a problem." Beast suggested, staring at the two enemy warships.

"Beast I agree, signal the _Fubuki_ ; have her put a railgun round or two into the destroyer." Hopper told the bridge wing lookout who then quickly worked the signal light. The turret on the _Fubuki_ came to life and traversed. Lining up the enemy destroyer; it then fired, an ear-splitting bang as the round with a blue plasma trail screamed through the air and slammed into the destroyer at a funky angle the ship visibly bent under the hammer blow, six seconds later the railgun on the _Fubuki_ fired again, this time the slug impaled the destroyer which had already suffered crippling damage, when the shell impacted; the destroyer whose back was broken, the amidships area just disintegrated and causing what was left of the destroyer to sink like a rock.

Hopper then ordered both ships to advance to flank speed and began to close with the huge hulking form of the battleship. The 155mm gun boomed and sent a glowing tracer toward the enemy ship; it did barely any damage. They were now 15 miles away, the great battleship, no, _dreadnought_ began a leisurely turn to port to bring her entire broadside armament to bear on the two charging destroyers. The ship pulsed with fire vomiting rounds that weighed nearly 3,000lbs toward the destroyers. The monstrous 20in/45 caliber rounds sounded way deeper than the eights Hopper noted and then he stepped into utter hell. The first salvo plunged into the sea short but sent a column of water towering as high as the flight deck of a _Nimitz_ -class. The prow of the _John Paul Jones_ plunged into the column of water; the 155 had stopped firing. Because they couldn't bloody see! Suddenly she emerged from it and the 155 cracked and then a deafening boom as the railgun on the _Fubuki_ fired.

The glowing tracer that arced from the _JPJ_ bounced off the armor. The railgun slug from the _Fubuki_ on the other hand; crashed into the belt armor and punched right through as if the armor wasn't even there. Hopper swore he saw something flash inside the ship, possibly a citadel penetration that likely just wrecked a turbine!

The guns on the _Devastator_ fired again, sending more shells their way. The bastards began to focus on the _Fubuki_ , having identified her as a threat that needed to be gone. "Signalman! Signal _Fubuki_! Say "Let's run up either side of this bastard and nail them with torpedoes!" Hopper bellowed over the din of battle. When he didn't get a response, Hopper looked and promptly grimaced. The bridge wing lookout/signalman was dead, most of his upper torso missing. Without thinking Hopper ordered the radioman to send the message. The 6MC squawked "Sir, we got a response. The _Fubuki_ says "Let's do it!" I hope this doesn't go to terribly wrong, sir." Radioman Troy said. "Good to hear." Hopper replied using the same circuit.

The two destroyers continued there sprint toward the enemy ship, with the intention of putting torpedoes into it. Even if they were lightweight torpedoes they would still do damage. As more shell splashes exploded around them; the _Fubuki_ suddenly appeared through a column of water and Hopper's heart plummeted into his stomach. The bridge area on the name ship of the Special-Type Guided Missile Destroyer was a mangled, unrecognizable mess; it was impossible for anyone to have survived in there, yet somehow the ship kept on track. Must had been the auxiliary conn that was keeping her on track.

"Captain! Message from the _Fubuki_ ; "Stay on target! We can keep with you."." Signalman Troy said. "Roger signalman Troy." Hopper said.

The two destroyers got to 6 miles and a full salvo of 20in/45caliber rounds went screaming right over their heads. They were too close for the main battery to hit them. The secondary was another matter however, and they would come into play in a just a few minutes. The ship light up like a Christmas tree as the _John Paul Jones_ raced along the battleship's starboard side, shuddering as multiple enemy 152mm AP shells slammed into her hull and over penned, while 57mm rounds crashed through the superstructure some of the AP rounds exploding and some not, constant streams of tracers from the CWIS battery reached out like orange laser beams of death and impacting the destroyer with a violent clattering. "FIRE TORPEDOES!" Hopper roared through the 47MC circuit. Torpedoes lanced away from the destroyer and were in the water for a grand total of ninety seconds before impaling the Battleship, four towering columns of water erupted from the thing's side. Then the battleship visibly got shoved toward them as the fish from the _Fubuki_ impaled her. Then the two destroyers were enveloped in the squall.

 **XXXX**

Hopper felt elation fill his chest; they had done it! They had managed to get around an enemy battleship in more or less one piece! Plus with the nine torpedoes being put into her, she wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. The sound of the raining pounding the deck, the flashes of lighting, and the booms of thunder was the signs that were safe. Then Hopper caught a glimpse of something orange, blue, and green. _What was that?_ Hopper thought as he rubbed his eyes to make sure that they weren't playing tricks on him. As he finished doing that, a large orange, blue, and green portal exploded into life directly in their path. "HOLY FUCK! EVASIVE MANUEVERS!" Hopper bellowed, however it was too little, too late as the racked clipper bow of the _JPJ_ plunged into the portal. _What the hell?_ Hopper thought as the _John Paul Jones_ completely entered the portal. He went to the bridge wing and noticed that the rain wasn't falling in here. He gazed over the edge and saw to his amazement that he could actually see the boot-topping of his ship. Suddenly and while Hopper was not an engineer he heard the screws runaway; he quickly dashed back inside the bridge. The deck suddenly pitched and sent him tumbling to the deck before it seemingly swooped upward like a roller coaster.

 **XXXX**

Hopper quickly regained his senses and sprang to his feet and then took stock of the situation. "Everyone alright?" Hopper asked. "Yessir I am fine." Beast said. "I don't think so, yes I am good sir." Ordy said.

"What the hell was that?" Hopper asked.

"I don't know sir. I honestly don't know." Ordy replied and Beast nodded. "Either way; that ranks pretty high on my list of "really weird ass shit" on par with the RIMPAC 2012 incident and we did some pretty weird shit; fighting aliens, well makes for an interesting thing on the resume "saving the world"." Hopper said.

"That is so true sir. I have never seen something so bizarre except for those aliens we had to fight during RIMPAC 2012." Beast replied.

"I agree with you whole heartily Beast." Ordy replied.

"Sir damage reports coming in." Beast said as the 4MC began squawking. Beast quickly frowned and then grimaced. "One of our torpedo tube mounts looks like Swiss cheese, a Fire Scout has been ripped in half by an enemy shell, thankfully the other Fire Scout and the Seahawk are still in one piece somehow, we've lost our Nixie torpedo decoy, Jesus Skipper we have a metric ton of holes all over the place thanks to the CWIS that engaged us, we got some minor flooding but the pumps are staying ahead of it. All told how we are still floating is nothing short of a miracle, probably because those enemy 152s and 57s were slinging AP rounds at us. We didn't have any of the 152s go off, sounds like from damage reports that we had two possibly three 57mm AP rounds explode, but a lot of the enemy 37mm CWIS APCBC rounds did explode. The exterior part of our superstructure has been shredded. CIC is still intact however everyone down there is rattled." Beast said.

That was when the surviving Bridge Wing lookout spoke up. "Captain we are coming out of the squall. We should get the hell out of here before that squall moves on completely and exposes us to that Battleship!" He shouted. Then as the _John Paul Jones_ moved out of the squall Beast spotted the _Fubuki_. "My god, sir! The _Fubuki_!" He breathed.

"Ordy bring us into a nice wide turn and get us pointed toward the _Fubuki_. Then go to flank; we have to get to her, I have gotten sick of leaving people behind." Hopper growled when he caught sight of the mangled Guided Missile Destroyer.

The _John Paul Jones_ moved in a slow, wide left turn to get her bow pointed toward the _Fubuki_ she then sprinted to her wounded comrade at 33 knots. There was a fire raging on her stern, her bridge was unrecognizable, the superstructure had gaping gashes in it, the aft CWIS gun had been shot away, and there was several horrendous wounds in her hull. "Goddamn she looks worse than we do." Beast breathed.

"They sure do, I hope that the aft conn on board the _Fubuki_ is crewed." Hopper said as he picked up a talker for talk between ships for short range communication.

" _Fubuki_ come in," Hopper said; he was surprised when he heard a very familiar voice reply back over the channel after he repeated that message a few more times and it was one he hadn't been expecting either. " _We hear you_ John Paul Jones _go ahead._ " Said Captain Yuri Nagata who had turned down a promotion twice to Rear Admiral mainly because he didn't want a desk job. "Captain Nagata, do you require assistance?" Hopper asked. " _Negative Hopper we don't require assistance. However I would feel a lot better if we stayed together. I was about to leave auxiliary conn when you hailed us. CIC has been completely demolished as has the bridge. I was in CIC when that happened so I went to auxiliary conn to command the ship. We have lost our SPY RADAR and launch capability for the Mark 41 VLS, however we just about have that fire beat, two of our turbines are operational we might be able to get a third one back online if we scavenge what is left of number two, however I don't want to push her past 20 knots. We still got our SONAR though, but no Seahawk. However we are completely helpless against air targets and missiles because we have no SAM or CWIS capability at all. But we still got our railgun, but we have to use it in local control._ " Nagata replied giving a damage report on his ship, the JS _Fubuki_ had been through the meat grinder. "Damn, alright. Captain Nagata we will stay on station and provide protection." Hopper said. " _Thanks, I feel a lot better now. When I heard that we had lost AEGIS I thought that my ship and crew was screwed._ " Nagata replied. "Anytime Captain Nagata." Hopper said before putting the talker back in its cradle, before leaving the bridge for a few minutes to refresh himself.

Little did the crews of both the USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-1006 and the JS _Fubuki_ DDG-179 know, but they weren't in their own world anymore. That squall had zapped them into a completely different Earth; one where wars didn't occur between humans but instead between humanity and aliens.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: There we go guys! The first chapter of my rewrite of my Battleship/Strike Witches Crossover! Different enemies, more believable enemy ships in terms of ease of production, some new and old characters, new types of Allied Ships seen in the story.**

 **A/N: Yes I did base that battle off of Taylor Anderson's 2** **nd** **Battle of the Java Sea that takes place in his Destroyermen Series book: Into the Storm. Information about the enemy ships will be put on my profile page when I get around to it. However the specs on the** _ **Fubuki**_ **-class DDG,** _ **Bunker Hill**_ **-class DDG, and** _ **Yukon**_ **-class CG are on my profile page.**

 **A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story, I am looking forward to writing it; if you have any ideas for the story or any helpful advice. Please either put it in a review or drop me a PM.**

 **As a long time player of Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of Pacific; I leave you with this note:** _Keep an eye on your 180; and give them hell!_


	2. First Contact

**A/N: Here we go; chapter 1 of my Strike Witches Battleship Crossover. A lot will happen in this chapter. That I can say for sure. Yeah. So take a seat, grab a refreshment, fasten that seatbelt just in case things get hairy, and let's get this show rolling!**

 **Note some of the Red Neuroi Ships are mine, but some are owned by Colonel AmiruddinArifSulaiman, if you are wondering what his look like please check out his story Kantai Witches. You will be able to tell the difference because my Red Neuroi Ships will have after their name in parenthesis what they look like.**

 **Also note, the Neuroi that appears in this chapter will be one of the few times a Large-type Neuroi will appear. To get an idea of what this thing looks like, look up the Gleipnir Flying Fortress from Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception.**

 **XXXX**

Three hours had passed after going through the squall and with both ships having made the turn south 45 minutes after going through the squall, it became obvious that they had given the enemy the slip; both the _John Paul Jones_ and the _Fubuki_ had turned south and had secured from General Quarters but were sailing at Condition III just to have a few fingers near a few triggers at all time. Among the damage the GPS receiver had been shot away on the _John Paul Jones_ and both the transmitter and receiver were trashed on the _Fubuki_. So they were back to using paper charts, old fashioned yes, but they didn't break.

"Captain, permission to enter the bridge?" Raikes asked from the hatch.

"Granted." Alex said, Raikes walked in, holding a clipboard with paper on it. "What do you have there?" Alex asked, wondering what it was.

"Sir, I just took an inventory of shipboard weapons and small arms and ammunition that we have left on board and it is not looking good for our anti-ship capability, our anti-air capability is looking a little better, and our ground target strike and anti-submarine capability is practically non-existent. We have exactly 43 RIM-162 ESSMs, 10 SM-3 Block IIA Anti-Ballistic Missiles, 16 SM-6 Block IIIs, 5 RGM-84 Block IV Harpoons, 4 ASROCs, and 3 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, two of which are the new Anti-Ship Version that is slowly replacing the Harpoon and the other is a conventional land attack version. For 155 ammo, we have 80 flak rounds, 125 AP rounds, and 95 HE rounds, we are bone dry on Star shells and LRLAPs. We are looking pretty good on CWIS and Chain gun ammunition roughly 45% which is pretty good considering how many missiles were being fired at us. Also our LaWS systems are good, somehow they survived that drive-by with that enemy battleship. We are looking okay for torpedoes, we got about a dozen Mark 54 MAKOs, but one of the torpedo mounts was shredded beyond all recognition, thank god we launched torpedoes before it got shredded. For small arms we have Colt Five-Seven SMGs, M8 Modular Rifles plus the AR, Carbine, and Light Machine Gun Modules, also we have MK-13 DMRs, M107s, plus standard issue sidearms. We are looking pretty good on ammunition with at least 7,000 rounds for everything save 12.7x99mm we have 14,000 rounds of that stuff various types too, so we are pretty much set on ammo. That is our current situation for ammunition and ordinance." Raikes said, giving a very important report.

"I see, thanks Raikes." Alex said.

"No problem sir." Raikes said with a nod.

"At some point in time we are going to have to address the fact that well, we lost our XO during the 1st Battle of the Java Sea. Thus we need to figure out what are we going to do about that." Hopper said.

"I agree sir. However we have more pressing matters than getting a new XO." Beast said.

"I agree with Beast, sir. We do have far more pressing matters to go through than worrying about vacant crew positions, like for example; what do we tell the crew? I am fairly sure that everyone heard the screws "ran away" hell I heard it happen in CIC and everyone in CIC saw some weird shit on the screens in CIC via the camera's." Raikes asked.

Alex cursed under his breath. He hadn't thought about that, _damnit_! "That is a very good question. To be honest, we should tell them. "That at the moment, for reasons beyond our control; that the United States Navy is no longer able to support us, but despite that fact. We are still a United States Navy Ship and I expect regulations and protocols to be followed." That should do it. However we will need fuel in the short term." He said.

"That should do it." Beast said.

As night fell, the two powerful guided missile destroyers, steamed at a leisurely 15 knots heading south. That night was mostly cloudy and the moon was full, however both ships didn't know it but they were in the Adriatic Sea.

 **XXXX**

Nearby flying at 7,500 meters and 1,300 meters above the interment cloud deck, was Flying Officer Sanya V. Litvyak of the Orussian Air Force and assigned to the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, based in Pescara Romagnan. Her Striker Unit a brand new Lavochkin La-7D with a Magic Engine based on the Shvestsov M-71F engine. She was hearing rumors over the "Night Witches Radio Community" about a new type of large type Neuroi that had the ability to actually make itself invisible, to not only the naked eye but also to RADAR and even Night Witches RADAR for short periods of time and that it was armed to the teeth. With that in mind Sanya had told Minna about it, thus several other Witches in the 501st JFW where on call to serve as a Quick-Reaction Force, just in case one of these things decided to make an appearance.

Suddenly she heard crackling behind her, and her Magic Antenna went crazy, she spun around and had a heart stopping moment. A large Neuroi had just materialized itself right _behind_ her! It was massive, and had it not been for the numerous red hexagons, it would have had the appearance of a large black bird, with its massive wings sweeping backward, a large tail that had four vertical stabilizers, and the design was very sleek. "Rasputin's Ghost" She breathed, it was one of the largest Neuroi she had ever seen, and likely one of the most deadly as well.

The Neuroi let out a thunderous war shriek before it opened fire, red beams erupted from every conceivable angle. Instantly forcing Sanya the defensive, she increased her speed to try and get some distance between herself and it. However it began to hammer away at her almost constantly with Beams. Then her magic antenna picked something else up a voice speaking either over a radio or ship intercom which one she couldn't tell, however the voice had a distinct Liberion accent. " _General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations! This is not a drill! I repeat this is not a drill! General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations, right this fucking instant! We have a large, unknown, hostile craft above us! Captain to Bridge!_ " The voice yelled as he bellowed into something, probably ship intercom. Then she heard it a faint but distinct sound that almost everyone had heard at one point or another, a distinctive _GONG! GONG! GONG!_ A battle stations alarm. She thought she heard a Fusoan sounding voice barking out something similar.

 **XXXX**

On board the USS _John Paul Jones_ , Boatswain Mate Beast was standing on the starboard side bridge wing. Even though he was a Boatswain Mate, the Chief Boatswain mate at that. He had adopted many various tasks on board the John Paul Jones, he often would serve as the Bridge Talker during combat operations, or forming details to help keep the outside of the ship spotless, or to well command the small boats that the _JPJ_ had. Today he was doing bridge watch, a young Seaman 1st class was at helm, her name was Rigel Flowers.

"Amazing night isn't it Beast?" Rigel asked, she had black hair cut military short with brown eyes, she was wearing a standard issue Naval Working Uniform II or just NWU; the new NWU had all of the same capability that the old NWU had, but the new NWU was now fairly fireproof, with several layers of Nomex woven into the thing, made it fairly fireproof.

"Sure is, Rigel, I just wish that it wasn't partly cloudy. I really was hoping to the stars tonight." Beast replied. Suddenly, a flickering blue light across the sky caught his attention. _What the fuck is that?_ Beast thought as a massive black object with red hexagons all over it appeared.

Then it let out a screech that shattered the windows and suddenly unleashed fiery hell at something. Beast sprinted to the Master circuit switch and yanked the switch for General Quarters. He then grabbed microphone, "General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations! This is not a drill! I repeat this is not a drill! General Quarters! General Quarters! We have a large, unknown, hostile craft above us! Captain to the bridge!" Beast yelled as the klaxon began to wail. A few moments later something similar began to happen on board the JS _Fubuki_.

Alex down right sprinted onto the Bridge wearing a Hanes white shirt and gym shorts, he was nothing if a careful planner. "Beast what do we got?" Alex demanded. Before Beast could reply a red beam of energy crashed into the sea not 200 yards off the port bow.

"Nevermind! I think I have figured it out! I will be in CIC! Beast the Bridge is yours!" Alex barked as he then sprinted back off the bridge and to CIC.

 **XXXX**

"Pescara! Come in! Come in! I need help!" Sanya yelled into her powerful transmitter, her voice shaking with fear. It only took a few seconds, for Minna's voice to answer, she was sounding very worried and nervous. "Hang on Sanya! I am scrambling the Quick Reaction Force!" She replied.

"Negative commander! Negative on the Quick Reaction Force! We are going to need the entire Joint Fighter Squadron to take this thing down! I am completely defensive here!" Sanya shouted as she firewalled her strikers in an attempt to try and put some distance between herself and it so she could fire back.

"Oh jesus." Minna simply breathed before snapping out of it. "Right! I understand that perfectly! You can expect support in twenty! We're scrambling! Eila will be at your location in five minutes! Hold tight!" Minna shouted over the radio just so she could be heard over the roar of Sanya's striker units.

 **XXXX**

At the 501st Joint Fighter Wing Base in Pescara Romagna. Yoshika Miyafuji was sound asleep in her room, it had been a really long day of training and doing various other things around the base. Suddenly the air raid siren began to wail, it's loud-screeching noise resounding through the base. In an instant Yoshika was fully awake. _What's going on?_ She thought as maybe it was instinct or maybe it was just muscle memory she quickly pulled on her uniform and then began to run toward the hangar.

When she got there, she was surprised to see Minna there. Jumping into her striker unit. "Commander, what's wrong?" She asked as got into her striker unit and then grabbed her gun. "Sanya is in major trouble, she's been ambushed by what appears to be a capital type Neuroi. She is completely defensive and unable to even go on the attack, it is being relentless in attacking her, she needs backup ASAP! Sakamoto is going to be our RADAR director to this thing." Minna said, as the last witch leaped into her striker unit, it was Francesca.

The witches of the 501st took-off and began to climb and then move off to engage the Neuroi that was giving their comrade such a hard time.

 **XXXX**

Sanya yelped as she barely avoided a Neuroi beam, her magic energy was running low from her almost constantly putting a shield up to block Neuroi beam hits, her constant hammering of the throttle wasn't helping matters. Her Magic antenna picked up that same Liberion Voice again. " _Damnit! Whoever is the hotspot on thermal trying to lawnmow whatever the fuck that is, get the hell away from it! You're in too close!_ " The voice barked.

 _You want to trade places buddy? I can't not at all._ Sanya thought as she finally manage to duck into a cloud where she began to catch her breath. "What the hell is that thing? I can't fight it, it is way too strong." She said to herself as she gripped her fliegerhammer and then took a deep breath. " _Sanya, where are you? I have engaged the enemy! Some support would be nice!"_ Eila barked over the radio, the chatter of her weapon audible in it.

"Roger! I am moving to engage!" Sanya barked as she moved out of the cloud and spotted the thing about a kilometer away, a disk was beginning to glow which rapidly intensify in brightness.

 _What the? Why is that disk glowing bright red?_ Sanya thought, then she got her answer, and it horrified her. Just as the contrail that had to be Eila moved in front of the glowing disk. A thunderous, roaring, deafening _BAWOOM!_ Resounded, a huge expanse of red energy exploded outward from that disk, a massive shock wave slammed into Sanya and damn near knocked her from the sky.

"Eila? Eila! Eila come in damnit! Eila please respond!" Sanya shouted frantically as struggled to claw for altitude, then she spotted the small trail of fire that was tumbling down toward the ocean.

"Minna! Things just went to shit here! I have two unknown warships below me, they have gone to Battle stations and are beginning to engage, however this thing has some sort of area of effect cannon! Eila is down she got caught by that thing when it discharged its area of effect cannon! She's dropping like a rock!" Sanya barked into the radio, her normally timid demeanor having been broken by this Neuroi.

Flak bursts were erupting around the Neuroi as the two ships engaged it. However the flag that each ship was flying, Sanya had never seen before. Sanya raced in and fired a salvo of four rockets, which seemed to barely scratch it. _Crap!_ Sanya thought before she suddenly heard the roar of engines.

The rest of the 501st had arrived. They promptly went on the offensive. Attacking the Neuroi with everything they had, however the bullets were just barely scratching the surface of it.

 **XXXX**

" _HOLY SHIT!_ " Alex yelled as the Neuroi unleashed its secret weapon the whole ship shook like a thing possessed. "Captain! That thing obviously fired at something! But what it was I can't tell! We need to do something!" A specialist barked.

"I agree! Time to switch from Passive tracking to active search! Do not set the system to go into automatic mode!" Alex ordered.

"Yessir!" A Operations rating replied. He then punched a few commands. "Three...two...one...Illuminate!" The Rating barked.

The AEGIS RADAR Array went to full power, kicking out in total for each of the _John Paul Jones_ 's four SPY-1D(V) RADARs nearly 5 Megawatts _each_. The AEGIS system took the returns and feed it into the computer.

"Holy" A rating breathed, looking at what they were getting. One contact was obviously out of control, its altitude was dropping like a stone, that one had obviously taken a couple of hits from those high-powered lasers and was done for. Another contact was increasing speed rapidly to intercept the large contact, which had at least ten small contacts buzzing around it.

"I still can't figure out is going on! Pan a camera around to where that fight is and zoom in on it." Hopper ordered.

"Yes sir!" A rating replied as one of the high-definition cameras panned around and found the battle going on. Red beams of energy were flying, tracers were cutting back across the direction where the beams were coming from, and every now and again the camera would catch a glimpse of blue followed by a beam splitting into many smaller beams.

Alex began to mull this over, it was quickly becoming apparent that they were not on their own Earth anymore. _Going to have to tell the crew after we kill this bastard!_ Alex thought before he barked out a rapid fire series of orders. "Load flak rounds for the 155! Some signal the _Fubuki_ tell them to try and do something to get whoever is attacking that thing and let them know we're in the area. Get done!" He barked.

The 155 traversed to where that large alien thing was, and began to fire. Each time the gun boomed, the deck plates rattled. As the 155mm/62 Caliber Water Cooled gun began to cycle flak rounds at an astounding 10 rounds per minute. Flak bursts erupted to life around the massive obviously alien craft.

 **XXXX**

Yoshika yelped as she was forced to put up her shield to avoid being bisected by a Neuroi beam. After the beam flickered and went out, Yoshika instantly went on the offensive, firing her Machine Gun. Suddenly a puff of black smoke erupted near the Neuroi and it caused to some noticeable damage, but not a lot. More bursts began to erupt around the Neuroi. Flak, Yoshika realized.

Then she heard a dreaded call. "Ammo out!" It came from Lynne, as she pulled out her last magazine, then opened the bolt, and then thumbed the safety. Soon more calls of running low, or ammo out began to come. Then a Fusoan voice began speaking over the radio. "Unknown unit, unknown unit. This is Captain Nagata of Japanese Navy Guided Missile Destroyer _Fubuki_ , please identify yourself." The voice barked.

Minna quickly responded, "Guided Missile Destroyer _Fubuki_ , I am commander Wilcke, commanding officer of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing." She barked as she ever so calmly put her shield up to block a Neuroi beam as she continued firing. Keeping a careful eye on her ammo count.

Suddenly a very distinct Liberion voice blared over the radio. " _Fubuki_ , This is the _John Paul Jones_ , 155 flak fire is ineffective! Teach that big alien bastard, a lesson! Hit it with the railgun!"

"Roger _John Paul Jones_! 501st JFW, break away, you don't want to be near that thing when we fire!" Nagata barked.

 _What the hell is a Railgun_? Minna thought as she barked out the orders. Which while the witches of the 501st were dismayed they did, although she did hear some mild cursing from the captains of both ships. In the meantime, Sanya had found Eila who had gotten her attention by using her shield as an impromptu rescue beacon and with help from Lynne had managed to haul her into the air.

Suddenly a thunderous, ear-splitting crack seemed to split the air. An instant later a tremendous sonic boom seemed to split the sky and then a bright blue streak smashed into the Neuroi and it simply broke apart in midair; the core actually tumbling out of the Neuroi. Everyone was staring in shock at what had happened, the Neuroi core hit the water first and shattered on impact which caused the rest of the Neuroi to shatter into white shards.

Then Barkhorn summed up what just happened with one sentence. "What the _HELL_ was that?" She growled stunned as what was left of the Neuroi shattered into a trillions of white shards. However Yoshika, Lynne, Perrine, Sanya, and Eila were all staring at the ship, that with one shot decimated a Neuroi in a way that seemed impossible, yet trying explaining that to their ears which were still ringing, and likely had some possible hearing damage.

Minna was now figuring out what to do now. The last thing that the Allies needed was one of those ships being captured by the Neuroi. " _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_ come in please, _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_ come in please." She said.

"This the _John Paul Jones_ , what do you need Commander Wilcke, also what the actual hell was that alien bastard, because well it was sure as hell not of this Earth." The captain of the _John Paul Jones_ said.

" _John Paul Jones_ , we can explain that bit later. In the meantime we need to return to base, its on the coastline roughly 50 kilometers away from here." Minna said.

"Roger that. We can make that by morning. Our Air Search RADAR can see pretty damn far. We can simply track you their. Have a nice night and see you in the morning. _John Paul Jones_ signing off." The Captain of the _John Paul Jones_ said.

"Commander Wilcke; both of our ships have pretty heavy damage, mine in particular. Also both of our ships are fairly low on ordinance and will need to be resupplied." Captain Nagata on the _Fubuki_ replied.

"Roger _Fubuki_." Minna said.

 **XXXX**

After the 501st JFW left the scene. Alex and Yuri instantly struck up a conversation. "Hell of a weird ass night." Alex said over the radio.

"Tell me about it, well from the sounds of it. We won't be able to go home, I guess we are stuck here." Yuri replied.

"Captain Nagata, how do you think the crew will take it? Knowing that they won't be able to go home? That we are in a different dimension, with no chance of getting home." Hopper asked.

"Hopper, to tell you the truth; I have no idea. We will think of something by morning. They said that their base was at Pescara which means we are in the Adriatic Sea, how about we do a morning Battle Stations drill? Should become a fairly nice habit to get into." Nagata replied.

"I don't think Commander Wilcke or the rest of the young ones in the 501st will like having a morning wake-up call like that. However it is always good to have vigilance, now that we are on a different version of Earth that has obviously been invaded by aliens. At least it ain't the Regents." Alex said.

"That is true on all accounts. However, I recommend we break the news tomorrow morning after the morning Battle Stations drill." Nagata said.

"I wholeheartedly agree." Alex said, after that the conversation quickly wound down and then both captains went to bed, knowing they had a _long_ day ahead of them.

 **XXXX**

It was roughly three-thirty in the morning, dawn wasn't due for another three and a half hours. Yet inside the medical wing, Sanya was watching Eila. The young witch had been healed by Miyafuji the moment they had gotten back to base, her wounds hadn't been that bad, somehow; only a broken leg, a fractured arm, and some minor internal bleeding, however Yoshika had told Eila to spend the night at the base hospital. So Eila was just resting. However something had the young Orussian witch down. She kept thinking to when she was first engaged by that Neuroi. Trying to think what had prevented her from engaging it the moment she had seen it. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

The thing that she had felt that had prevented her from engaging that Neuroi that had managed to shoot Eila down, and had given the 501st JFW a really nasty run for its money was, fear. Which was bizarre, sure she did feel fear whenever she engaged a Neuroi but it was natural. Yet this time it had been different. This one Neuroi had been bigger than most Neuroi. It had almost hurt to look at, trying to take it all in all at once. Just seeing that massive monstrosity of a Neuroi so up close it seemed like she could reach out and touch it, had terrified her in a way that she hadn't been terrified of the Neuroi since well, she had first engaged the Neuroi in combat. Which had occurred years ago, why was she suddenly terrified of going back up into the sky again to engage the Neuroi? She really couldn't think of why this was the case.

She was surprised to hear a knock at the door. "Something wrong Sanya?" Minna asked as she walked into the hospital room where Sanya and Eila was. Sanya nodded. "What is it?" Minna asked, as she pulled up a chair.

"Commander, I had a real problem when that Neuroi appeared directly behind me. I just heard a crackling like when you are putting in a new fuse or something like that, then my Magic Antenna went nuts. I turned around and it was right there. I have never been so scared of a Neuroi in my life. Just seeing it so close that I could see every little detail in it, plus with it being so big. I-I hesitated, which the last time that happened was during one of my first engagements against the Neuroi. As a result of me hesitating, Eila is now in the hospital." Sanya said as she told the commander why she hadn't been able to properly engage that Neuroi.

"Fear is only natural Sanya. I can understand why you would end-up becoming so terrified when you saw that Neuroi make itself known right behind you. To be frank if that had happened to anyone of us, particularly Miyafuji or Lucchini; they would be in the same position that you are right now. Sanya, please remember this, fear is only natural. It is a part of everyday life when we are combatting the Neuroi; but don't let it rule you." Minna said.

"Thanks Commander. I guess I should be getting some sleep and not letting something like this getting me down." Sanya said, as she got up and began to go to her room. "No problem Sanya, if you ever are having issues like that please let me know." Minna said, and Sanya nodded.

After Sanya walked out of hospital room to get some sleep, Minna sighed. She had felt more fear than usual when she had engaged that Neuroi. It was as if it was generating a powerful aura or something that made everyone within a certain radius get very fearful. Which might be why this type of Neuroi was being so effective in killing or severely wounding Night Witches, was because of not only its method of attack, but because it gave of a malevolent aura. She got up and she too went to her room, to get some much needed sleep for the day ahead.

 **XXXX**

The _John Paul Jones_ and the _Fubuki_ arrived on near the base at Pescara at roughly 0545 hours. With both Captains waking up a few minutes after that waking up, getting dressed, grabbing a cup of coffee, and then walking on to the bridge nearly ten minutes before dawn. _Today is going to be interesting_ that's _for sure._ Alex thought as he walked on to the starboard bridge wing. Thinking about his last mission with the SEALs during a mission that in the blink of an eye, went sour in an instant.

 **XXXX**

 _Flashback_

 _December 31st, 2018_

 _Somewhere in China_

 _Commander Alex Hopper moved forward swiftly and quietly like a Ninja, he was 2IC of a ten man squad of SEALs. They were apart of a large scale operation, working in concert with the PLAGF (Chinese Army), ROCA, JGSDF, USA (United States Army), PLAAAF (Chinese Air Force), ROCAF, USAF, JASDF, and USN to destroy a rogue PLA General by the name of Sun Fac who had under his control, the 6th and 8th PLAGF (People's Liberation Army Ground Force) Armored Divisions, the 70th and 71st Anti-Aircraft Divisions, the 2nd Artillery Division, the 148th, 149th, and 150th Infantry Divisions. Worse he had somehow managed to get a hold of six ICBM launchers, these were mobile TEL launchers each had only one missile a DF-31, but each missile held a grand total of five MIRVs (Multiple Independently targetable reentry vehicles) plus they were Nuclear-tipped, he was threatening to do the unthinkable. Reduce Taiwan to a Nuclear Wasteland._

 _To stop this threat, the PLAGF, JGSDF, USA, ROCA, and USN; deployed ground forces to engage the rogue Chinese General and his supporters. While the JASDF, USAF, ROCAF, and PLAAF were going to be providing close air support and medevac. The United States Navy deployed in the Formosa Strait a pair of AEGIS Cruisers to stop any MIRVs in case the ICBMs got launched in mid flight. To add another layer of protection, the United States Army and ROCAF deployed several Patriot Missile Batteries in order to engage any MIRVs that got past the AEGIS Cruisers. While the United States Air Force deployed an AL-1B Interceptor to nail any ICBMs during boost phase._

 _However another major piece had to be done as well. General Sun Fac had to be taken out. So the SEAL Team Hopper was assigned to had to while on foot, slip through the chaos of battle, sneak into the enemy rear and kill General Sun Fac, and then get back out. While also if they had the chance, put the enemy artillery out of commission. It was your atypical United States Navy SEAL suicide mission._

 _Alex was on point, leading the SEALs through the underbrush, they were in a slightly staggered formation. As they entered a clearing, there was a muffled pop, and then boom: next thing Alex knew he was flat on his back, his torso feeling like it was on fire. He heard the distinctive sound of a SCAR-H on Rock and Roll (Full Automatic) resounding to his left, followed by a thud. "Hey, man stay with me, okay." It was the team medic, he began to do some first aid, but grimaced when he saw the wound._

" _Boss! We need to get the commander out of here now! That round that hit him was an AP round! It went right through his vest, the guy must have been a bad shot either that or we spooked him and he took a panic shot." The medic, a young Lieutenant snapped. (In case you are wondering, the one man in the military that can order men many ranks higher than him is the medic)_

" _I understand. Someone get me in contact with DUSTOFF. We need a helicopter evac over here ASAP." The CO of the squad said._

 _The response from command was immediate. A UH-60M MEDEVAC Black Hawk was sent to where the SEAL Team was, somehow the UH-60 didn't get fragged by enemy fire. It landed in the clearing and Alex was loaded onto the thing, it promptly left the area._

 _XXXX_

 _Alex would later wake up in a military hospital in Taiwan. The round that had hit him, had been a 7.62x54mmR AP Sniper Rifle Round, right through the torso. The amount of damage it had done was massive, the round had dealt massive trauma to him, and somehow had not killed him. Either way, General Fac was killed, his personal army totally wiped out as they had fought to the last man, thus no prisoners had been taken. Still the damage from the gunshot wound he took put him in rehab for the entirety of 2019._

 _XXXX_

 _End Flashback_

 **XXXX**

"You okay sir?" A voice asked. Alex looked around, it was Beast.

"I was just thinking of the time I was a SEAL, and how I would love to be one again. It just gets in your blood I suppose. However, there were times when I just wanted to have a simple at sea posting." Alex said simply.

"I understand that Skipper. Anyway, the sun is about to come up. I think we should get ready for the morning Battle stations drill." Beast said.

Alex nodded. Both the _John Paul Jones_ and the _Fubuki_ were anchored roughly 400 feet away from easternmost part of the base (basically where the runway is; it appears to be pointing east, just taking a guess here).

Alex looked at the horizon awaiting for the sun to finally crest the horizon. The instant he did, he sounded the alarm. _GONG! GONG! GONG!_ The General Quarters Alarm sounded, all throughout the ship sailors scrambled out of their bunks and ran to their battle stations. "Engine room manned and ready, aviation division manned and ready, all stations manned and ready for action sir." Beast said as he listened to the reports. Alex looked at his watch and smiled.

"Not too bad, could be a little better. But then again we did do the Battle Stations drill right at the crack of dawn." Alex said.

 **XXXX**

Minna groaned as she woke up. "Jesus, what was all of that racket?" She said as she pulled herself out of bed, she could hear a faint gonging sound.

 _Must have been an early morning battle stations drill._ Minna decided as she remembered that it was common practice to have everyone go to their posts in case on an enemy attack. So it made perfect sense.

She got up and made sure to be fully dressed for today. It would make the most sense. She then remembered that she would also have to do patrols. For some reason Francesca had been begging to allow a long duration patrol composed of herself, Shirley, and Yoshika out to Naples Romagna.

 **XXXX**

Minna had to admit, that the general reaction from the rest of the 501st was surprising when they found out that she was going alone. Mainly because she had decided to do just that by herself, regular introductions were to happen later. "Miina, with all due respect are you sure it is a good idea for you to go by yourself?" Trude asked.

"Trude, I am certain of it. Plus, I am the commander of this unit. It is how I feel, if anything I should be the first aboard." Minna replied.

"Still, what does Guided Missile Destroyer, even mean?" Lynne asked confused.

"Who knows, maybe after Minna's visit aboard those ships we will find out the answer." Erica said.

Breakfast continued like that, with everyone wondering what sort of capabilities that these two unknown ships had.

 **XXXX**

Roughly around 10 am, Minna was now standing at the end of the small dock, waiting for pickup. She heard the the feral roar of an engine, and was wondering what it was. Suddenly, one of the smallest and fastest launches Minna had ever seen came streaking into view, it was hydroplaning like the Liberion MTBs did but was moving at a fair bit of speed. What surprised Minna the most was the intimidating weapon that was mounted near the bow, it looked like a regular machine gun, but as the launch drew closer; Minna realized with a start that it had multiple barrels, like the old Liberion weapon the Gatling Gun.

 _Maybe a their version of a Gatling Gun?_ Minna thought as the man who was piloting the launch, a large broad-shouldered man wearing a bizarre looking uniform, it had a little dashes of blue of varying shades, and a hat that looked like a Karlsland Ski cap expertly guided the launch right up snug with the dock.

Not only that, he had guided the launch right up to where their was a ladder. Minna sighed she then carefully stepped down the ladder and into the boat.

"Hello there ma'am. I am Master Chief Petty Officer Walter Lynch of the USS _John Paul Jones_ , I will be taking you over." The man said as he introduced himself.

"Thanks Chief. Uh, where should I sit?" Minna asked.

"You can sit right near where I am, make sure to grab the onto the silver hand rails. This thing can do upwards of nearly 50 knots at full throttle." Lynch said, as he deftly maneuvered the now obvious High-Performance Launch away from the pier.

Minna was then grateful that she had grabbed the Silver Hand Rail. For once the boat was clear, Lynch slammed the throttles forward and the Launch shot forward like it had fired out of a cannon. However, it quickly became obvious that Lynch knew what he was doing, as he somehow managed to not get her soaked.

As the ships came into view, Minna realized the Captain Nagata had not been kidding. His ship had certainly been through the ringer. Holes were visible everywhere, the bridge was a twisted unrecognizable mess, the sound of work was definitely coming from that ship, however Minna did get a good look at the Kanji that was on her side, yep she was named _Fubuki_ alright.

However, as they approached the other ship, Minna was amazed, somehow this ship was less damaged than the _Fubuki_ , Minna realized that this must be the _John Paul Jones_. That was when she saw that she only had one gun forward, it barely qualified as a Frigate. Yet Minna figured she was going to get her answer soon. "In case you are wondering why the _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_ have only one gun; it's because where we come from in our time. The Naval Gun has largely been supplanted by the guided missile. Basically a rocket that can home in on a target and send it to kingdom come." Walter explained as the launch got closer.

"She looks about as big as a _Leipzig_ -class Cruiser." Minna remarked looking at the _John Paul Jones_.

"She is pretty big commander roughly 560 feet at her longest point, she can haul ass too. She can something like 34 or 36 knots at flank, and can crowd 40 if she is doing speed trials." Walter said, as her guided the boat up to the side of the _John Paul Jones_.

"ALRIGHT! Bring us up!" Walter bellowed, sounding like a true Chief Petty Officer could.

 **XXXX**

After the launch had been brought up, Minna had spotted four figures, two of them wearing the exact same uniform as Chief Petty Officer Lynch was. The other two were wearing different uniforms. "Hey Chief?" Minna asked as Walter jumped out of the launch.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Permission to come aboard?" Minna asked.

"Permission granted." A new voice said, causing Minna to jump slightly. Minna stepped down on to the deck.

Minna quickly saluted first, which man then returned. "I am Captain Alex Hopper commanding officer of the _John Paul Jones_ , welcome aboard commander." Alex said.

"Thank you captain." Minna said.

"Commander, please follow me to the briefing room we have aboard." Hopper said.

Minna walked after Hopper, who knew where he was going but after about two minutes Minna was totally lost. Finally some minutes later, they came into a room that had a table in it. Standing around the table was two other men and a, Minna did a double take just to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her. Nope her eyes weren't deceiving her at all. The third person standing at the table was a _woman_.

After salutes were exchanged Minna and the others sat down. "Alright Commander, first I guess first some introductions are in order." Hopper said after he had sat down.

"I think we should go around in a circle." Minna said.

"Right, I guess I will go first. I am Lieutenant Commander Cora Raikes, but commander if you want you can just call me "Weps". I am the Tactical Actions Officer and the acting First Officer for the _John Paul Jones_." The woman said, introducing herself as Lt. Cmdr. Cora Raikes.

"I guess it's my turn then." The man sitting of Raikes's left said. "I am Captain Yuri Nagata, Commanding Officer of the Japanese Guided Missile Destroyer _Fubuki_." The man said introducing himself as Captain Nagata.

Then the man sitting on Captain Nagata's left introduced himself as the first officer of the _Fubuki_ and that he had barely survived a 20in AP round impaling the bridge.

"Right then, I think I should go next. I am Commander Minna Dietlinde-Wilcke. Commander of the 501st JFW." Minna said introducing herself.

That launched a very impressive question and answer session. The Captains and First Officers had asked some very good questions. Although Minna had to admit, the Captain of the _John Paul Jones_ , Alex Hopper while he only asked a few questions, the ones he did ask where curveballs, however after he heard of anti-witch sentiments, he had a very impressive answer to that.

"Jesus, some of those guys must be cocky pricks, who while they can get the job done. They always take murderous losses. If you ask me, here is how I see Witches, while they are young, they are effective. Just be grateful that the Neuroi did show up and also believe me, myself, Weps, and Nagata here know what it is like to fight aliens out to destroy your planet." Hopper said.

"Really, you have fought aliens before? I didn't know that." Minna said slightly shocked.

Hopper nodded before explaining the RIMPAC 2012 Incident in its entirety, from start to finish. With help from Nagata and Raikes.

"So wait, you're telling me after this " _Burke_ -class" Guided Missile Destroyer, which was also named the _John Paul Jones_ was sunk by the aliens. You were down to just one last ship, a museum ship, named the USS _Missouri_? That is a Liberion or in your case American _Iowa_ -class Battleship, why if she is decommissioned would even have ammunition onboard?" Minna asked surprised as hell.

"Yeah, it's true, we had just one last ship after we lost the _Burke_ -class named _John Paul Jones_ or _JPJ_ for short. The thing is, if we didn't destroy the Beacon Project, the aliens would call for reinforcements and completely wipe out Earth. Captain Nagata thought I was crazy. As for reason she still had some ammunition on board, the _Missouri_ was one of the two _Iowa_ -class Battleships selected for the 2008 Defense Act Initiative which basically stated that two of the four _Iowa_ -class Battleships, should we ever need it can be recommissioned to serve in the Navy again." Hopper explained.

The discussion went on for roughly thirty more minutes, before winding down. Hopper agreed to take Minna on a tour of the _John Paul Jones_ and to explain the plethora of technologies that the ship had.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Finally that is done. Alright next chapter will not take place anywhere near Pescara, but will in fact take place near Naples Romagna; we will also see another ship from the version of Earth that the** _ **JPJ**_ **and** _ **Fubuki**_ **are from, a unique** _ **Virginia**_ **-class Nuclear Powered Attack Submarine, SSN-800, USS** _ **Harder**_ **. She is unique in besides being the first United States Submarine to be named after fish in nearly 30 years, she also has very serious firepower.**


	3. The Harder

**A/N: Here we go boys and girls; Chapter III of my Battleship/Strike Witches Crossover. This time we see the involvement of one last Friendly ship from the Earth that the** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **and** _ **Fubuki**_ **is from, except that this one is a** _ **Virginia**_ **-class Nuclear Powered Submarine, built with an experimental reactor and with a little more forward firepower.**

 **Also expect during this chapter something unexpected to happen, something that will cut Francesca to her core.**

 **Anyway, grab a refreshment, take a seat, strap those safety belts tight, and let's get this show rolling!**

 **XXXX**

"Report!" Captain Andrew Mancuso commanding officer of the _Virginia_ -class Nuclear Powered Fast Attack Submarine USS _Harder_ SSN-800 yelled as he pulled himself to his feet. Andrew Mancuso had been commanding the _Harder_ since she had been commissioned in 2019. He was wearing your a typical NWU, just like the rest of the damn Navy; he had jet black hair and black eyes, and had an attitude somewhat similar to his father Bartholomew Mancuso.

"No damage to the hull sustained! The damage control board is green across the board." The XO of the USS _Harder_ , Commander Marcus Cramer replied as he looked at the damage control board.

"Then would someone please explain to me why it sounded like the damn propulsor ranaway? I would certainly like to know why the hell that happened!" Andrew barked.

"Sir, I have no idea why that happened! A propulsor will only sound like it ranaway, is if it is brought totally out of the water when it is running!" The Helmsman answered.

"Alright, then thanks, prepare a diving team. I want the propulsor checked for damage of any sort, anything that could disrupt our noise levels. I want that dive team assembled within thirty-minutes. I want us on the surface within forty-five minutes. Helmsman make your speed five knots! What is the depth under keel!" Andrew ordered.

"One second sir!" The Helmsman said, he pressed a button on his console. A sharp resounding _Ping!_ Reverberated through the hull, several moments later they received the return _Pong!_ "Depth under keel is 149 meters, sir! We got plenty of room to go deeper if needed!" The helmsman said.

"That can't be right! Periscope depth!" Andrew snapped.

"Yessir! Periscope dive, sir!" The diving officer said as he sounded the diving alarm. The USS _Harder_ quickly ascended to periscope depth, which even though the powerful _Virginia_ -class didn't have periscopes as one would think. Well, old habits died hard.

"Up scope number one!" Andrew barked. The photonic mast quickly raised above the surface of the water and Andrew took a quick 360 degree view of the surrounding area. "What the fuck?" Andrew muttered when he saw it.

"Hey, Commander Cramer what does that look like to you?" Andrew asked stepping aside to let Cramer have a look. The Commander took a look pulled his head back from the viewing piece and blinked a few times before putting his head back to the view piece.

"That looks like Mount Vesuvius; which is impossible, we are on the other side of the world. Yet that is Mount Vesuvius, and these photonic masts cannot be fooled easily." Cramer said.

"Yeah" Andrew said.

He then walked over and grabbed engaged the 1MC switch. But before he did he engaged the SONAR room circuit. "Conn Sonar" Andrew said.

"Sonar aye, what is it captain?" The chief sonar operator asked.

"Are we alone? Any SONAR contacts?" Andrew asked.

"Negative conn, no SONAR contacts we are alone. However if we detect anything, I will let you know." The SONAR operated replied.

"Thanks" Andrew said, then engaged the 1MC circuit.

"Attention, all hands. This is the captain speaking. As you all may have heard, it sounded like the propulsor "ranaway" which is very hard to do, with one of these things. However, I have to believe that the United States Navy as we know it, can likely no longer support us. However, I still expect every last one of you to act like crew members of the United States Navy Silent Service. More information as we get it." Andrew said then hung up the talker.

He had no idea just how correct he was in the fact that the United States Navy as they knew could no longer support them. However he had also made a mistake, he didn't finish the 360 degree look around, and thus didn't know of the Royal Romangan Destroyer _Turbine_.

 **XXXX**

"Wow, this is Naples, Romagna?" Yoshika breathed amazed by the bustling city she was seeing.

"Yeah, this is Naples, Romagna. While it's not Rome by any stretch of the imagination. It is still very impressive with a lot of history behind it. Nearby is the city of Pompeii which was destroyed in the year 79 A.D. when Mount Vesuvius erupted." Francesca said, pointing the volcano out.

"Incredible, it looks similar to Mt. Fuji." Yoshika said as she gazed at it.

"Yeah, but it is actually shorter than Mt. Fuji by a substantial amount, but Vesuvius is more famous." Francesca replied.

"You got that right Francesca, it certainly is more famous than Mt. Fuji. No offense Yoshika." Shirley said, sparing a quick glance over at the volcano.

"None taken, I just never thought I'd see what Mt. Vesuvius looks like." Yoshika replied.

As the trio approached the Gulf of Naples. That was when Yoshika spotted something, at anchor roughly halfway out into the bay, with smoke coming softly up from two funnels.

"Hey, Francesca! What's that?" Yoshika asked, as she pointed out the ship.

"I don't believe it! That's the Royal Romangan Destroyer _Turbine_ , lead ship of her class! She was recently outfitted with depth-charges and a Liberion made ASDIC system. However I would recognize the _Turbine_ anywhere!" Francesca said, getting very happy for no reason at all.

"Why is that Francesca?" Shirley asked, curious.

"That's because the _Turbine_ is commanded by my father." Francesca said, looking at the ship.

"She is pretty that is for sure." Shirley said looking at the _Turbine_.

The _Turbine_ was a _Turbine_ -class Destroyer, she was completed in the year 1927 and launched in the same year, and was commissioned into the Royal Romangan Navy in the year 1928. She is powered by three boilers turning two Parsons Geared Steam Turbines, she has a top speed of 36 knots, and is 305 feet long, 30 feet wide, and has a draft of 9 feet. She is armed with two twin 4.7in gun mounts, with one forward and one aft, she also has thanks to a refit in '43 two single 40mm Bofor Gun mounts, two single Breda 30 AA gun mounts, and fifty-two depth charges. She was a very sleek and deadly destroyer, and had one of the best crews in the Romangan Navy.

"We should visit Naples someday, it would probably be really fun." Yoshika said.

"Yeah, it sure...what the hell is that?!" Shirley said suddenly pointing to something as a large black thing exploded from the water. "Holy shit! I think that is a Neuroi Submarine! We can't do anything about it!" Yoshika said, gaping at the size of the thing. It appeared to be about as big as a Fusoan _Sen-Toku_ -class Aircraft Carrying Submarine!

"No, but the _Turbine_ can!" Francesca said, ready to watch her Dad's ship go to work. The anchor was quickly raised and the forward gun boomed, two 4.7in shells went screaming toward the submarine, and smoke began to billow from her funnels at increased intensity as the _Turbine_ began to surge forward.

 **XXXX**

"Holy fuck!" Andrew bellowed as the distinctive sound of shells barely missing the _Harder_ resounded, two shell splashes erupted to life on either side of the _Harder_. They had her dialed in! He looked around and spotted a ship, gunsmoke blowing the wind away from the guns and beginning to bear down on the _Harder_ " GENERAL QUARTERS, CRASH DIVE!" Andrew bellowed into the mic for the conn.

"Crash dive, aye!" The helmsman said oddly calm, as Andrew got out of the sail station and began to scramble down the ladder, closing the hatch as he went, and went back to CIC. He felt the engines on board the _Harder_ go from quiet to full throttle, and crew members were slamming hatches shut as the powerful attack submarine quickly began diving. At the sametime the Klaxon alarm began to go off.

"Conn, Sonar! That unknown that opened fire on us is moving! She's picking up speed, making turns for twenty knots! Bearing 095!" The SONAR chief yelled.

"Helmsman make your course 275, all ahead flank!" Andrew ordered. "Designate that hostile Master 1!" He added.

"Yessir!" The helmsman responded.

"Yessir!" The Chief Sonarman replied.

Time since first shots fired at the _Harder_ ; two minutes twenty seconds. The _Harder_ was below the surface now, and turned away from the onrushing destroyer and cranked it up to flank speed, she quickly reached her top speed of 38.5 knots (just taking an estimate here since the top speed of the _Virginia_ -class is classified, plus the _Harder_ has more shaft horsepower than your normal _Virginia_ -class), and quickly began to outstrip the unknown, hostile destroyer. Time passed slowly, Andrew took a quick glance at his watch, seven minutes had passed. "Alright, helmsman make your speed eight knots, course change, make your bearing 095. Fire Control Party get this bastard locked in. Weapons control, what is in our tubes?" Alex ordered.

"Yessir" Came the reply from the helmsman and the chief officer for the Fire Control Party.

"Sir! Tubes One, Two, Three, and Four have Mark-48 Mod 7s in them. Tubes Five and Six have Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles loaded in them sir!" The chief weapons officer barked.

 **XXXX**

Back above the surface, Yoshika, Shirley, and Francesca were watching the _Turbine_ as she went to flank after the enemy submarine which had crash dived from the looks of it. Then they heard a message from the _Turbine_ to high command. "Okay, just what the _fuck_ is this thing? It is out-running us! High Command we need a Catalina and a Witch equipped with Catalina Striker Units. Make sure that the Catalina is equipped with Sonobuoys! We need them to track this thing down!" The radioman barked. It didn't take long for High Command to respond. "Roger that _Turbine_ , Catalina and Witch support will arrive in ten minutes!" High Command reported.

On board the _Turbine_ , the sonarman judged the range to be roughly 7500 meters, the target had slowed for no reason and then had turned toward them. Then he heard the unmistakeable sound of a torpedo tube door opening, "TRANSIENT! TRANSIENT! TRANSIENT!" He screamed, moments later the distinctive sound of a torpedo being fired was heard. "TORPEDO IN THE WATER! BEARING 000!" He screamed, the destroyer instantly began zig-zagging, this tactic would have helped the _Turbine_ dodge the torpedo, had it been a regular straight-running torpedo.

 **XXXX**

Onboard the _Harder_ , Alex Mancuso was waiting for the words he wanted to hear. "Captain! Target Motion Analysis is complete, we can fire when ready!" The chief of the fire control party barked.

"Good! Open tube one! Firing point procedures tube one!" Alex barked.

"Yessir! Opening tube one!" The chief weapons officer barked, a few seconds later he then said "Firing point procedures tube one! Torpedo launched, cleared and left the tube!"

A few moments later the sonar man piped up "Unit One is running hot, straight, and normal, sir! Time till unit one acquires the Master One is 90 seconds!" He said.

The 90 seconds passed in the blink of an eye. "Cut wires and close tube one! Reload with a Mark-48." Alex ordered. After hearing the Sonarman bark "Unit 1 has acquired Master One."

The torpedo that the _Harder_ had launched was the pinnacle of United States Navy Submarine Launched Torpedo Technology. The Mark-48 Mod 7 torpedo; this beast of a torpedo is optimized for both littoral and deep-sea use, its swashplate piston engine was powered by Otto-II monopropellant, which when ignited turns into hot gas, which drives the engine. The thrust for the Mark 48 Mod 7 ADCAP Torpedo is delivered by a propulsor. With a range greater than 8 kilometers it has a reach greater than most torpedoes of the era and it almost never misses. This torpedo is wire guided but it has its own sonar as well, once this thing has you in its sights it is game over. The warhead is 650lbs of RDX plus whatever fuel still hasn't been burned. Has a top speed of over 50 knots. The torpedo was painted green to blend in with the water, plus it left no bubble trail, making it nearly impossible to detect by visual methods, the torpedo was designed to explode underneath a ship's hull to break its back, although it would often rip the ship half.

The torpedo had just acquired lock-on with the _Turbine_ which had been doing evasive maneuvers, the torpedo made an adjustment in its course that would terminate right underneath the _Turbine_ amidships right in between the two funnels.

 **XXXX**

The _Turbine_ was roughly 45 degrees off the _Harder_ 's port bow, when a lookout spotted something, green on green moving unbelievably fast right for the ship. "OH MY FUCKING GOD! TORPEDO TO STARBOARD!" The lookout screamed.

But the warning came in too late. Even as the ship began a frantic turn to starboard.

 **XXXX**

"Unit One will impact in Five...Four...Three...Two...One…" Cramer said onboard the _Harder_ looking at a small silver pocket watch.

 **XXXX**

Francesca, Shirley, and Yoshika watched in horror as the water around the _Turbine_ amidships, between the two funnels turned to a frothing white. Then a large explosion blasted upwards, a massive detonation that ripped the _Turbine_ in half in one brutal instant, and wrenching the hull open in numerous places all over the hull that was still intact. The bow section seemingly disappeared, it was gone within fifteen seconds of the impact of the torpedo, the stern didn't fair any better. It lasted a little longer but was gone within a minute. All that remained to show that there had been a ship there just a few moment ago, was some scattered debris floating in the water, an oil slick, and a few items floating up from the depths.

The _Turbine_ and all 179 men on board were gone, in the blink of an eye, their lives ended so brutally it made the witches want to throw up.

However Francesca began trembling and tears rolled down her face as she came to the realization that her father was gone. Then the dam broke and she began to openly weep as the reality of what she had just seen hit her full force.

Yoshika was horrified by what she had seen, sure she had seen ships get sunk by the Neuroi before, but their should have been no way that torpedo should have impacted, it should have missed by a mile. Yet somehow it did, the evidence pointed to a acoustic homing torpedo (they did exist in WWII so they would also exist in the 2nd Neuroi War as well), that was the only explanation for why that torpedo impacted and destroyed the _Turbine_ sending it down to the bottom .

"Holy fuck" Shirley simply breathed, not believing what she had just seen. Sure she had heard of torpedoes snapping ships in half, and knew that Fusoan Type 93s did it on a regular basis to Neuroi Corvettes, Frigates, and Destroyers. But she had _never_ seen a torpedo explode in _that_ fashion, before.

 **XXXX**

"Impact!" Cramer said, at the same time the reverb from an explosion went through the hull, moments later Sonar confirmed what everyone already knew. "Direct hit! She's going down fast; she probably began to break up the moment that torpedo hit her!" The chief sonar man said.

"Let's get the hell out of here. Plot a course bearing 180, speed 10 knots" Alex ordered.

The _Harder_ quickly slipped away from the engagement sight, total time elapsed between the first shots being fired to the enemy ship being sunk ten minutes.

 **XXXX**

The PBY and the Witch with Catalina strikers tried for two hours to find the submarine responsible. However even though they had dropped nearly sixty of the new-fangled Sonobuoys they didn't find it. This completely demoralized the crew of the PBY and the Witch that had been deployed to find the submarine that had sank the _Turbine_ with all hands lost.

In the Meantime Shirley, Francesca, and Yoshika landed at the airfield at Naples, Italy. Shirley had told Yoshika to go to the base commander to send a message to the 501st JFW base at Pescara and to ask for transport. Something happened out here and Francesca was emotionally unfit to fly. When the base commander had heard of what had happened, he understood instantly, no one, no matter the age, should witness one of their own parents being killed.

 **XXXX**

At Pescara, Minna was being shown around the _John Paul Jones_ , they had started forward and Hopper had explained in great detail what the 155mm Gun was capable of, had Lt. Cmdr. Raikes open up a hatch in the deck, revealing the tip of a rocket of some kind. Hopper had explained that it was something called an SM-3 Anti-Ballistic Missile and could swat a V2 out of the air no problem, he had also explained that the SM-3 wasn't the only weapon contained in the cells. "It's hard to believe that this ship is just a destroyer, because it packs more firepower onboard then a _Yamato_ -class Battleship, and is as big as some cruisers." Minna said in awe.

"Yep, in my time, the year 2020. The Big Gun Battleship has long since passed, and the aircraft carrier has taken over as the primary capital ship of the world. With Guided Missile Cruisers and Destroyers providing protection. Although the Battleship does have a special place in my heart. Particularly the _Iowa_ -class of battleship." Alex said.

"I can understand that, the Liberion made _Iowa_ -class Battleships are very impressive." Minna replied and Alex simply nodded.

Hopper led Minna deeper into the ship. Showing the various spaces except for one with a hatch marked CIC. "Um, Alex?" Minna asked.

"Yes Commander?" Alex replied.

"What is CIC?" Minna questioned.

"CIC is the nerve center of the _John Paul Jones_ , it is where all of the data that is drawn in from the AEGIS sensor suite is processed and turn into useful information. Plus the ratings in their, generally don't like to be interrupted as it disrupts their focus on the task at hand." Alex explained.

"I see." Minna said; when suddenly the 1MC circuit engaged, and Walter's voice blared over the intercom. "Captain, you are needed in the radio room." He said.

Hopper grumped; "Alright, didn't expect this." He said, and began to walk in a different direction. Minna followed, after five minutes she was totally lost. They then came to a hatch marked radio room. Alex opened it and stepped in. "What do we got?" He asked.

"Sir, you need to take a look at this." One of the communications specialists said handing Alex a piece of paper. Alex took the briefest of looks at it then said "Commander it's for you, reason we picked it up, is because well our communications equipment is some of the most sensitive in the world." He said.

Minna took the piece of paper and read it over. "My god" She breathed, stunned at what she was reading.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Hopper asked.

"Is there someplace we can speak in private?" Minna asked.

"Yes, we can do this in the conference room where we started this morning, then if need be cut the tour short." Hopper said.

"Thanks" Minna replied; still mentally reeling from what she had just read, Francesca's father and his entire crew had been killed in action when they engaged an assumed Neuroi submarine. Worse of all, three of her witches had witnessed the whole thing, including Francesca.

 **XXXX**

After they walked into the conference room and had sat down, Minna then read the message aloud. When she was done, Hopper cursed pretty creatively. "Damn, alright I will cut the tour short and have Boats take you back to base. I guess in the meantime, I am going to have to get my ship ready for a visit by the big brass." Hopper said.

 **XXXX**

Five minutes later, Chief Boatswain Mate Lynch was helping Minna into the _JPJ_ 's motor launch. "You ready?" He asked after the launch slapped into the water.

"Yes" Minna replied.

The motor launch shot back towards the base at Pescara. About halfway their Lynch spoke up and told her something that would come in handy later. "Commander Wilcke just to let you know, everyone on board the _John Paul Jones_ and to a degree crewmembers on the _Fubuki_ call me "The Beast" or "Beast" mainly because I am the biggest guy on the ship, and probably second strongest after Captain Hopper. They only call me by my name unless the situation is tense or critical." Lynch said.

"I see, thanks." Minna said, still trying to think on how to calm Francesca down when she got back to base. Once again Beast showed some very impressive skill, bringing the launch right up to same spot where Minna was picked up.

"Have a good day Commander." Beast said as Minna climbed out of the Launch and onto the quay. "Thanks Beast." Minna replied. The launch quickly left the quay and went back toward the _John Paul Jones_.

 **XXXX**

Major Sakamoto meet Minna the moment she walked inside the base. "Commander, have you heard of what happened near Naples?" She asked.

"Yes Major I have. The _John Paul Jones_ also picked the message up, completely by accident. We need to have the Ju-52 prepped and sent to Naples to pick Shirley, Francesca, and Yoshika up, and we need to tell the brass. They have to know about this latest development; however they also need to have their weapons replenished or they won't be able to fight." Minna said.

"I see, okay; I'll alert the crew of the Ju-52 to get ready for the mission, I will also accompany the Ju-52, because well we need to learn what has happened." Sakamoto replied, with a note of concern for the Witches who had witnessed the whole thing, she started to jog toward the hangar. _Good lord I wonder what happened out there; the_ Turbine _had one of the best crew's in the entire Royal Romangan Navy._ Minna though as she watched Sakamoto jog toward the hangar.

 **XXXX**

Twenty minutes later, Minna was watching as the Ju-52 that had been assigned to the 501st JFW began to power down the runway, heading for Naples. The problem was, that was the only Transport plane that they had. She was trying to figure out what she would tell the brass. This was going to be interesting, however she figured she should only tell a few commanders, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Air Chief Marshall Dowding, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt, and lastly Admiral Stanforth Whitcomb of the Polelentsy Federation Navy; however Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt, well she wasn't sure if their busy schedule would allow them to be able to visit.

Still, there was something that she felt when she was around Captain Hopper of the _John Paul Jones_ that she hadn't felt in a long time, but what was it?

 **XXXX**

Major Sakamoto sighed after the Ju-52 landed, and had come to a stop on the taxiway, at the airfield here in Naples Romagna. Something told her she was in for a very rough time trying to get Francesca to tell her what had happened.

A young private opened the door, and promptly saluted. "Major" He said with a curt salute which Sakamoto returned. "Private" Mio said.

"The three witches from your unit are in the base infirmary. This way, Major." He said.

"Lead on private." Mio replied.

The private trotted toward the hospital, and then led her to the ward where the three of them were. He led them into the ward and Mio; Shirley was holding Francesca close who was still crying, meanwhile sitting on a bed was Yoshika, she had that sort of look in her eyes that said she was shell shocked like she couldn't believe what had happened.

Mio took a deep breath before walking over. "Sakamoto" Yoshika said softly, her usual smile replaced by a blank expression. "Major" Shirley said as she held Francesca close.

"Shirley, can you please tell me what happened?" Sakamoto asked.

"Well, we were flying over the Gulf of Naples, about to finish our patrol and return to base. When we were over the Gulf, we saw a Royal Romagnan Destroyer; which Francesca told us was the _Turbine_. She was really happy to see the _Turbine_ because her father was in command of the _Turbine_. Well just before we turned to leave, a large back tear drop shaped submarine, surfaced. We instantly knew it was Neuroi, but it didn't appear to be a Blue Neuroi submarine at all. The _Turbine_ opened fire with her forward gun turret at it and missed, and the thing promptly crash dived. The _Turbine_ went after it and we followed the _Turbine_ out of curiosity you could say. Well suddenly the _Turbine_ began to zigzag; which meant the submarine had stopped running from it, in fact we actually picked up a message from the _Turbine_ saying that the thing was outrunning them. Well it had just finished a turn to port and had been going for at least 100 feet like that, when suddenly she began to heel over to starboard. Just as the water around her amidships turned white, and then blasted upward with such force that it ripped her in half, the bow was gone within a matter of seconds, but the stern stayed above the surface for like a minute maybe, before that too sank. We saw no survivors in the water, to be frank I am certain that most of the crew was likely killed when that torpedo exploded, that had to be what sank her, a torpedo, a wakeless, acoustic homing torpedo. I have never seen anything so brutal in my life." Shirley said, explaining what had happened.

"Dear lord, this thing outran the _Turbine_?" Mio asked shocked.

Shirley nodded in response.

"This is a startling development, that's for sure. Nevertheless, let's get you three back to base. However Francesca, when we get back to base, I want you to see a counselor, to help you get through this." Mio said.

 **XXXX**

Sakamoto decided to have Shirley carry Francesca to the Ju-52. Yet something was bugging Mio, a feeling of foreboding that something bad, would follow the 501st. What that thing was she did not know; however she had a feeling that it when it was over it would shake not only the 501st but all of those involved to its core. The question was, what had nailed the _Turbine_? Whatever this submarine was, it had turned the tables on its attacker in an instant and a destroyer at that, which were thought to be a submarine's natural enemy. Yet this thing had effortlessly sunk the _Turbine_ which was a destroyer. The only submarine the Mio knew of who had a skipper that could turn the tables on an enemy destroyer like that was the Liberion _Gato_ -class Submarine USS _Harder_ SS-257 and she had recently meet her end with all hands lost near the Fusoan Island of Iwo Jima. What this meant did not bode well for humanity if this was in essence a Plaat version of the USS _Harder_ SS-257, the amount of damage this thing could do was not good at all for the Allied war effort.

 **XXXX**

Nearly six hours had passed since the USS _Harder_ SSN-800, had sunk the _Turbine_ with all hands. The boat was now moving south at ten knots at a depth of 150 meters; what they didn't know was that they were about to discover something that really convince them that they had left the Earth they knew.

"Conn, sonar." The chief sonarman said.

"Conn aye, what is it Victor?" Mancuso asked.

"I have quite a few number of sound contacts, the computer has identified several as _Fletcher_ -class Destroyers, but from the sound of it, there are some really big ships in this fleet." Chief sonarman Victor said.

This got Mancuso's attention, because the last _Fletcher_ -class Destroyer was decommissioned from active duty in the year 2001. "How many sonar contacts have been identified as _Fletcher_ -class Destroyers?" Mancuso asked as he walked over to the sonar room.

"Four have been identified by the computer as _Fletcher_ -class Destroyers, the rest are pulling up a blank from the computer. Sir if anything, I'd recommend we go to periscope depth and figure out what we can see." Victor said.

Mancuso nodded and then walked back to the conn "Periscope depth" Mancuso ordered. The Diving alarm rang and the _Harder_ climbed up to Periscope depth. "Up scope number 1!" He barked, he then grabbed the folded up handles and brought them down, and peered into the viewer just as the photonic mast breached the surface of the water.

What Andrew saw, elicited a long, slow whistle. As he slowly rotated the photonic mast, he saw various powerful warships, however they were all of the "All-Gun" Mantra of main armament. However as he swung the thing around to bearing 352 relative, he caught a glimpse of something, he pointed the photonic mast at whatever was at that bearing and saw a ship with a distinctively Japanese _Pagoda_ Style Mast. "What the?" Mancuso said as he looked at the ship, blinking to make sure that he wasn't imagining it, nope it was still there.

"Hey Cramer! What do you see?" Mancuso asked as he stepped aside to let Commander Cramer take a look through the scope.

"That, is a Japanese Battleship. I can tell you that much, however one of the ship's that I can see has the number 446 emblazoned in white on its grey hull. Only one ship has had that number, and she was a _Fletcher_ -class a member of DesRon 21." Cramer said.

"Damn, I didn't notice that! I was too focused on the big Japanese Battleship, and didn't notice the _Fletcher_ -class Destroyer." Mancuso said.

What Mancuso had discovered was an Allied Task Force, composed of the Battleships IFN _Nagato_ and HMS _Warspite_ , heavy cruisers IFN _Myoko_ , IFN _Tone_ , HMS _Berwick_ , HMS _Cumberland_ , USS _Astoria_ , and KKK _Prince Eugen_ , light cruisers USS _Oakland_ , HMS _Dido_ , HMS _Royalist_ , IFN _Tenryuu_ , and KKK _Emden_ , and destroyers USS _Radford_ , USS _Nicholas_ , USS _Fletcher_ , USS _O'Bannon_ , IFN _Hibiki_ , IFN _Inazuma_ , IFN _Ikazuchi_ , IFN _Akatsuki_ , KKK _Z51_ , KKK _Z52_ , KKK _Z45_ , HMS _Trafalgar_ , and HMS _Agincourt_ ; otherwise known as Task Force Archimedes, this force was sailing to Naples, Romagna in preparation for a strike against a major Neuroi base at Santorini. They had no idea that they were shadowed for almost twenty minutes before Captain Mancuso lost interest and ordered the _Harder_ to return to course, heading south and to relative safety.

 **XXXX**

Minna had to carefully think of a proper way to word the message to the members of the Brass that needed to know. She also decided that she would have them encrypted before they were sent, and have them marked as urgent. This was something that needed to be sent to the right Generals and Admirals _without_ the wrong ones, the ones that despised witches knowing about it. So at the moment it was best to keep it limited to only a few at most. She had already tried to figure out several different ways to try and tell those members of the brass what had happened here at Pescara. She was struggling to figure out how to word it.

Sighing, she got up and went to the window, noting that the Ju-52 had returned, but what caught her attention was the fact that besides the fact that Shirley was carrying Francesca, was the solemn look on Yoshika's face and the downright distraught look on Shirley's face. She quickly left her office, she needed to talk to Francesca, figure out how to calm her down. However just before she left her office she figured out what to send to those members of the brass.

 **XXXX**

After a quick trip to the radio room, where she had the message sent; she hurried to the common room. Just as she got there she was met by Mio. "How's Francesca holding up?" Minna quickly asked.

"Not too well, Minna. She's taking this very badly and to be frank I don't blame her. She witnessed her father get killed. If anything, she probably will never be the same." Mio said with sorrow.

"I see, thanks for letting me know. If anything, the first order of business is getting her calmed down and having her voice out her feelings." Minna said.

"I agree with you on that." Mio stated.

"Thanks, I'll go talk to Francesca, once we get her calmed down, I will call a counselor to help her through this tragedy." Minna said as she walked into the common room and over to the couch that Francesca was sitting on, with her head in her hands and openingly crying.

It took roughly an hour to get the youngest member of the 501st to stop crying; however she didn't talk afterward. Thus she was taken to the medical ward, where it was determined she was in a state of shock. It was heart-wrenching to see, for that morning Francesca had been well herself, seeing her in the state she was in, it just wasn't right.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: There we have it! Chapter III of the Battleship/Strike Witches Crossover. Note I will accept ideas for a better title, if you have an idea for one, shoot me a PM or leave it in the review section. Next Chapter expect some members of the big brass to visit, and something that is very much needed before one of the ships is ordered to find the ship that sent the** _ **Turbine**_ **to the bottom. Also expect to see some small arms next chapter, M107.**

 **Note the idea for killing Francesca's Father wasn't mine, it was someone who would like to remain anonymous. This story is still in the first arc of chapters, which is called Arrival. As always, please review, as it helps me figure out what I need to do in order to make the story either better or in what direction to take it.**

 **Thorthemighty321 signing off.**


	4. The Big Brass

**A/N: Hello everyone; Thorthemighty321 here with another chapter of my Battleship/Strike Witches Crossover. Note this chapter will happen several days after the previous chapter.**

 **Also besides having to deal with the Big Brass; we will start to see Francesca get started on the road to recovering from the loss of her father; note if this chapter isn't that good I apologize in advance.**

 **Also; WOW! The amount of feedback and views that I am getting for this story is incredible! Thanks guys for the support!**

 **So take a seat, grab a refreshment, and that safety belt tight once more, let's get this show rolling!**

 **XXXX**

Minna was beginning to get concerned for Francesca, she was having trouble sleeping every night; and during the day she would just stare out the window, only stopping to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Trude had gone through something similar when Chris had wound up in the hospital due to a Neuroi attack. She was certain that something had died inside Francesca when she had witnessed her father die.

Either way, without Francesca to brighten up the day, the mood around the base began to slump. Minna could tell that was the problem, easily. Everyone, even Perrine missed the Francesca they all knew.

At the moment Minna was sitting in the common room holding a meeting that was going over what they could do to help Francesca. Standing in the corner was Captain Hopper, Captain Nagata, and Boatswain Mate Lynch. Who had opted to provide input if needed, so after introductions had gone around, the meeting had begun.

"I am really starting to worry for her. It just isn't right to see her like that." Perrine said, with a note of sorrow, while Perrine might have been of Gailian Noble Blood, she did miss the Francesca just like the other members of the 501st JFW.

"Tell me about it, thanks to the way Francesca is acting, it has the whole squadron down in terms of mood." Yoshika put in, with a note of concern for her friend.

"We could have her take a few days of leave, have her visit her mother for a couple of days; that might cheer her up." Erica suggested.

"That could work but for all we know. She could go right back to how she is acting now when she gets back to the base. Then we will be back to square one." Mio replied, practically shooting the idea down.

Suddenly Beast cleared his throat, softly. "What is it Beast?" Trude asked.

"I think the reason that Francesca is acting the way she is, is because she feels she has succeeded in her duty to protect her country, but she has failed to protect her family; she is probably wondering if she even deserves the title of "Ace". If that ain't it, well I don't want to talk about the alternative." Beast said simply.

You could almost feel the wave of understanding that went through the Witches as they began to grasp Beast's reasoning. This opened up a new window of discussion among the members of the 501st which was quickly followed, however they couldn't figure out what to do now that they had an idea of what could be causing Francesca's depression.

Beast sighed as he realized that they weren't going to be getting anywhere with this conversation. "Commander Wilcke, with your permission I will go and talk Francesca. I maybe Navy and not Air Force, but I have helped some close friends get over the shock of losing someone they love. I might be able to help her." Beast said.

You could hear a pin drop in the following silence, mainly because they were stunned at the fact that Beast, a very imposing man, was actually offering to help Francesca. "I am trying to help; if it makes you feel better. You can have one of your witches watch me." Beast said trying to break the tense silence that had ensued.

"Fine, we will try it that way. Hartmann, can you go with Beast." Minna ordered.

The meeting slowly dispersed, Lynne pulled Captain Nagata aside, asking if he knew how to become a better long range shooter. Captain Nagata told her, that he was probably one of the best teachers around for that sort of thing. Since he had been a hell of a shot since a stint at summer camp when he was pretty young, that had surprised her that was for sure, but her had told her first he had go tend to the _Fubuki_ and get her as ready as humanly possible for a visit from the big brass. Hopper had to go back to the _John Paul Jones_ to make sure everything was in order, because the way he saw it, his ship was going to be inspected by some of the highest ranking officials in the entirety of the Allied Forces Chain of Command, last thing he needed was quote "Some over eager butter bar Ensign screwing everything over just a few hours before what is probably going to be one of the most tense inspections of my _entire_ career in the navy."

 **XXXX**

"Here is her room." Hartmann said, with a strained smile.

"Hartmann, do you know what it is like to lose a friend or someone you love?" Beast asked before Hartmann opened the door. She paused.

"No I don't know what it is like. I probably don't want to know either. Also can you please call me Erica, I am just more comfortable with it." Erica replied.

"It is one of the hardest things you can go through. For some they get blinded by anger, for others they just descend into deep depression, and for some they change; Alex, went through two of those when he lost his older brother during a very _interesting_ incident back in our world. I won't go into the particulars but he changed from being a hothead and a little disrespectful to a man who does very well under pressure, is calm in even the most intense of situations, and above all a damn fine officer. He even admits it too. It are events like this that mold a person into what they become. Something tells me that with the right amount of prodding and help we will be able to get Francesca back to normal or as close to normal as is humanly possible." Beast explained.

"I see, okay thanks. So you think that this is one of those events?" Erica asked, beginning to figure out what had befallen her friend.

"Yes, I believe this is one of those events, if anything. We must quickly get her out of her depression. Even if that means I have to take her out for a spin in the RHIB." Beast replied simply.

"I see. Wait, what's a RHIB?" Erica asked.

"A RHIB is what we use in the future for motor launches. They are high performance boats, capable of reaching speeds, depending on the model of upwards of 70 knots. The one we have on the _JPJ_ can do roughly 55 knots at full throttle, with a bit of tweaking, I can probably get it up to 60 to 63 knots at the most." Beast said explaining the thing.

"I see, well I guess we should walk in." Erica said and she opened the door.

 **XXXX**

Francesca knew she could never be her old playful self again. She had saved her country many times but the one time she had a chance to protect a loved one, she had failed spectacularly. She was thinking about turning in her wings, how could she even call herself an "Ace" or a Strike Witch if she couldn't even have saved someone she loved? This fact alone was tearing her apart inside. She heard two people talking outside her room; one of them was Erica by the sound of it but the other one she didn't recognize, but it did sound like a man from the sounds of it.

The door opened, and Erica walked in, right behind her was a broad-shouldered man who had the approximate muscle build of a middle-aged Oak Tree. He was wearing a bizarre uniform, it was long sleeve and pants with varying shades of blue on it that were small little dashes. There was more than a few pockets on both the pants and the shirt. He also had a hat similar to the hats that Karlslandian Infantry wore.

"Hey Erica" Francesca said, her voice sounding almost like a whisper.

"Hey Francesca; I brought someone who wants to talk to you." Erica said, before stepping aside the man stepped forward.

"Hello there, my name is Walter Lynch, you can if you want to call me either Beast, The Beast, or Walter; I don't have a preference. In case you're wondering, I am stationed on one of the ships anchored outside." The man said introducing himself.

"Hey there, I am Francesca;" Francesca said with a slight whimper.

"What's the problem Francesca? I can tell just from your body language that something is just ripping you apart inside." Beast asked, his voice surprisingly soft and gentle.

"You're right; something is tearing me up. I lost my father a few days ago. He was in command of a destroyer called the _Turbine_. She was sunk by an enemy submarine, with a torpedo that somehow managed to hit her even though she was zigzagging. The torpedo hit, and blew her right in half, she was gone in practically the blink of an eye. I remember frantically sweeping my eyes over the place where she had been, and all I could see was just some scattered debris, an oil slick, and the occasional item floating up from the depths. She was there one moment, and just gone the next moment. She sank with all hands." Francesca said with a sob.

"Francesca, I will help you get through this, trust me. So please tell me, why are you shutting down like this? You comrades are extremely worried for you, they want to help you anyway you can." Beast said putting a reassuring hand on Francesca's shoulder.

"I think the reason that I am "shutting down" as you say. Is I guess maybe guilt, I have protected my country numerous times from the Neuroi. Yet the one time I had to protect a member of my own family, I failed miserably. I don't deserve to call myself an "Ace", if while I can protect my country but I can fail to protect a member of my family." Francesca said sounding dejected.

"Listen Francesca; War is never pretty, it never is and never will be. I know what it is like to lose a close friend or your family; I actually might have it worse, because I am here stuck in the 40s in a world where history is turned on its head, and my family is on a different version of Earth where it is the 21st Century at the start of the 2020s, I will likely never see them again. So remember this, as long as you don't forget the memories you have with your father, he is never really gone." Beast said keeping his voice calm and level.

"R-really?" Francesca asked, sounding slightly more like her old self again as she began to grasp what Beast was saying.

"Indeed, in fact, here. I might catch a bit of hell from the skipper, but I want you to give you something." Beast said with a nod as he began to pull something off from around his neck.

Both Francesca and Erica recognized them as Dog Tags otherwise known as Identification Tags. The design was of Liberion descent to be sure, however Francesca was surprised Beast actually gently took Francesca's hand and put his Dog Tags into her hand.

"Why are you giving me these? These are yours, not mine, I don't understand." Francesca asked confused.

"Francesca while it is okay to mourn the loss of a loved one. You shouldn't wallow in misery because of it. At some point you have to move on; However I want you to hold these dog tags close to your heart and know that someone is always there for you no matter what happens." Beast said.

If anything Francesca began to perk up a bit; after Beast had told her that bit and had given her his dog tags. "Thanks Beast." Francesca said, her voice beginning to return to normal.

Erica smiled, "It's good to have you back Francesca." She said in a slightly Jovial tone.

Francesca nodded, then Beast got an idea. "Hey Francesca, how about after we meet the Big Brass; how about I take you fishing, would you like to do that?" Beast asked.

"I have never been fishing before." Francesca said with a sigh, Beast just smiled. "It's alright, I'll teach you." Beast replied.

"Thanks" Francesca said, beginning to sound cheerful to a degree.

 _It's a start, that's for sure._ Beast thought, "Francesca how about you come outside. It would do some good for you." Beast told her, to Erica's surprise, Francesca actually nodded and stood up. It was a start but Francesca was now on the road to recovering from her loss.

 **XXXX**

It was safe to say, that Alex Hopper was probably going to drive himself crazy just to get the _John Paul Jones_ ready for what was likely going to be the most stressful inspection of his _entire_ Naval Career. First he had to lay out a dress uniform for this occasion. He then had to pitch in to help with repairs, making the ship being able to look somewhat presentable, however the truth be told that enemy battleship had really given the _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_ a real brutal thrashing, it was a miracle in itself that both ships were still afloat, the _Fubuki_ in particular, the secondaries on the _Devastator_ had ripped her to shreds. The funerals for those who hadn't made it had happened yesterday, it had been an at sea burial over the horizon. However Alex knew that to get the _John Paul Jones_ fully repaired it would take the abilities of a drydock and a shipyard probably the better part of three weeks or more to get the _John Paul Jones_ ready to fight again, for the _Fubuki_ it was a lot worse, she was going to need the better part of two months or more in drydock just to get fully repaired, and both ships needed a resupply badly.

 _Damnit, both of our ships need to be in a proper yard and drydock for repairs. Most of the repairs we are doing are very much temporary fixes._ Hopper thought as he checked in CIC to figure out when the plane carrying the big brass, which had the flight profile of a C-47, was due to arrive within 90 minutes.

However first something was going to arrive. It started with a low rumble in the background.

 **XXXX**

"What is that noise?" Lynne asked Yoshika as the two were working on lunch in the kitchen and the plates, glasses, and silverware had begun vibrating.

Yoshika looked at her friend and shrugged "I have no clue; I haven't heard anything like it before. I wonder what it could be." She replied.

 **XXXX**

The source of the noise was the upped security that was coming for the time being. The amount of security was awesome, while Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, General George Patton, and General Omar Bradley to name a few weren't able to attend do to various reasons. Both Rommel and Patton had been able to spare detachments of units to provide increased security. The units that had been sent was a battalion of the famed 7th Panzer Division called by the Neuroi and the Allies as the "Ghost Division" and a Battalion of Infantry from the 1st Infantry Division, 16th Infantry Regiment.

The force being sent to increase security had 30 Karlslandian Panzers; with fifteen Panzer III/IV ausf Cs which was a normal Panzer III/IV save it had Side Skirts a 7.5cm L/48 Main Gun and three MG-34s, ten StuG IV Tank Destroyers, three Panther ausf Gs, and two Tiger IIs. It was also composed of roughly 650 Liberion Infantry most of them in M3 Half Tracks although a few were in trucks or in Willys Jeeps. The reason that so much manpower and equipment had been suddenly redirected was simple. With the amount of brass that was heading to Pescara it would be a very tempting target indeed for the Neuroi so it would be best to bolster security.

The rumble of engines and tank tracks was the source of the noise for that was causing the glass, plates, silverware, etc. around the 501st JFW base at Pescara to rattle. Meanwhile slowly the John Paul Jones was slowly brought alongside the runway but it was, tricky to say the least.

 **XXXX**

Mio was wondering how the heck the "Japanese" ship the JS _Fubuki_ DDG-179 was still afloat. The damage while it was slowly disappearing was tremendous. The gaping wound near where the bridge would be meant that round on par if not bigger than the main battery on a Fusoan _Yamato_ -class Battleship had hit near their. Possibly a Common shell from the look of the damage. Her superstructure and hull had been riddled with holes, whatever the _John Paul Jones_ and the _Fubuki_ had fought against, they had both taken a battering. The _John Paul Jones_ was in better shape but she would still likely need a dry dock, the _Fubuki_ certainly did.

 _I wonder what they engaged?_ Mio thought absent mindedly as she got herself ready to see the big brass as well. The C-47 Skytrain while none of the heads of state for the Allies were onboard. There were still some very high ranking members of the brass on board, including CINC of Allied Ground Forces in Europe General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Air Chief Marshall Dowding, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and Admiral Stanforth Whitcomb of the Polelentsy Federation Navy.

While Mio had at some point met most of the Allied Commanders she was yet to have met the Polelentsy Federation Navy Commander In Chief for the Mediterranean Theater, Admiral Whitcomb. However she had heard of him through reputation, he was a mustang, a hard charging commander who knew how to command his ships and play to his ships and crews strengths, if anything he was the wild card in the Polelentsy Federation Navy. These were the scant few commanders that were able to visit given that the allies were gearing up for a push into Venezia, thus a lot of the commanders were getting their troops ready. It was a miracle in itself that General Eisenhower had been able to come at all, the same was true with Admiral Yamamoto.

 **XXXX**

Needless to say, the witches of the 501st as well as the sailors and Marines on board the _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_ were pretty surprised to see the extra security arrive; particularly the men and women of the _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_ because before hand, the tanks, halftracks, and jeeps they were seeing they could only see in museums, with even fewer in running condition to see so many actually moving was a truly amazing sight. The idea had been last minute thus the units that arrived had just enough time, to go over several plans that they had made enroute, and take up positions.

 **XXXX**

Hopper was standing on the bridge of the _John Paul Jones_. Dressed in an immaculate dress uniform, like the rest of the crew. Hopper went over the various decorations that he had on his "Salad Bar". _Let's see, one Silver Star, a Distinguished Service Medal, a Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, an Armed Forces Service Medal for Operation: CRUSADE OF PEACE, a Sharpshooter Expert Pistol and Rifle Badge, a Navy Overseas Service Ribbon, a Command At Sea Badge, and a Navy Special Warfare Insignia._ He thought going over all of the various badges and medals that he had earned. (Note I tried my best to get the order right, however just know for a fact that in the story they are all in order)

"There they are!" Ordy barked, pointing out the aircraft. Alex stepped onto the bridge wing to get a better look. The plane was a McDonnell Douglas C-47 Skytrain. The C-47 went screaming overhead, and banked to the right before coming around for a landing.

 _Here we go._ Hopper thought.

 **XXXX**

As the C-47 banked around, it gave those inside a good look at the two ships from another world. "Holy. Is that them?" A member of the small SAS detachment onboard stated, looking in awe at the two ships.

"That would make the most sense. Still, both of those ships have certainly been through hell from the looks of it." Admiral Whitcomb said looking at both ships with a critical eye and picking out damage.

"That is definitely correct. The question is though, what did they fight?" Admiral Yamamoto said.

"You are correct their Admiral. I am wondering what did they fight as well." General Eisenhower stated.

"Still, while we are discussing it. I think we should also see what they need as well. As the age old United States Navy saying goes; "If you ain't ordinance you ain't shit" comes to mind; because well a Navy Ship needs several things to be able to fight the enemy. Those items are fuel, ordinance, food, and a crew. If anything they might need a resupply soon." Air Chief Marshal Dowding said.

"I can handle that. It wouldn't be that hard to get both a floating drydock, a repair ship, an ammunition ship, and dry cargo ship to them." Admiral Whitcomb stated.

"Good to hear Admiral." Eisenhower said.

 **XXXX**

The C-47 landed as gracefully as a C-47 could. Quickly coming to a stop. The first thing that the members of the brass and the escort an SAS team noted; was that one of the ships was brought as close as possible to the runway, with the gangway extended, the ship tied off in several locations, and the anchors deployed. The ship was painted a uniform grey save for the number at the front which was in white outlined in black that number was 1006.

Needless to say, the size of the ship really was hit home when they were next to it. "She appears to be roughly as big as a the Karlslandian _Leipzig_ -class of light cruiser." Admiral Yamamoto muttered.

 **XXXX**

As the brass climbed the gangplank they came to the top where they met a tall man in a Full Dress Uniform, his rank devices identified him as a Captain. The man made eye contact and almost instantly saluted coming to ramrod attention. However General Eisenhower who was in front after returning the salute then asked. "Permission to come aboard?"

"Permission Granted, welcome aboard, General Eisenhower." He said, he then repeated the same for everyone else. The man then introduced himself as Captain Alex Hopper.

"Right, I guess we should get right down to business then." Admiral Whitcomb said.

Hopper nodded. "Agreed Admiral, if you would please follow me, to the conference room. Also if you see any sort of battle damage, we are still doing repairs from a battle we had." He said.

"Right, let's get to it." Eisenhower said gesturing for Hopper to lead on.

 **XXXX**

The trip to the conference room was while quick along the way, they did encounter several members of the crew who were for the most part in a rather interesting uniform, most of them also did a double take, before scrambling out of the way and coming to attention.

After roughly ten minutes of walking they came to a bulkhead door. Two other members of the crew were standing at the door as well. One had the insignia of a Boatswain Mate and his rank devices identified him as a chief petty officer. While the other one caused a few eyebrows to go up, first off the second crewman was a she, second she held the rank of Lieutenant, however the Insignia was one that well with the exception of Admiral Whitcomb none of the brass recognized.

 **XXXX**

After everyone had filed into the Conference Room onboard the ship. Introductions had gone around and now the discussion between them was full blown.

"So who commands the other ship, Captain?" Admiral Yamamoto asked.

"The other ship is commanded by a close friend of mine. Captain Yuri Nagata, he's a good man. However well his ship took a brutal thrashing during an engagement we had on our version of Earth. Her AEGIS suite was all but demolished, with only one working SPY RADAR, a turbine was totaled as well, her aft VLS was flooded so she has almost no ordinance left, she also needs a completely new bridge as well. The main reason he isn't here is because he is mainly helping with damage control as well because during the engagement his ship lead ship of the "Special-Type" of Guided Missile Destroyer lost over three-quarters of her crew as a result almost all of the surviving crew are currently repairing her. I hate to say it but his ship needs not only a dry dock but a yard as well." Hopper explained, giving what he had heard from Nagata about the most recent damage reports.

"Damn that's bad; she certainly took a pounding. However who were you fighting during that battle before you wound up here?" Air Marshall Dowding asked.

"The enemy we were fighting was a new nation in the Southeast Asia region called the Aristocratic Republic of Toria. They had the American, British, Japanese, Australian Flotilla on the back foot almost since the war had begun. During the final battle, we watched them sink the American Guided Missile Cruiser _Concord_ , the Australian Helicopter Destroyer _Hobart_ , and then the British Guided Missile Frigate _Iron Duke_ in that order. The _Concord_ was sunk by a combination of torpedoes and gunfire, the _Hobart_ was sunk by gunfire alone, while the _Iron Duke_ was done in by Carrier Planes. In fact we have the whole battle recorded. Same with our first engagement against the Neuroi." Raikes said, with a note of anger towards the Aristocratic Republic of Toria.

"Wait? What do you mean you have those two engagements recorded? I certainly doubt that you had someone outside recording the battle with a camera." Eisenhower stated.

"The reason for that General, is whenever this ship goes to General Quarters. Nearly sixty High Definition Digital Cameras scattered throughout the ship turn on and start recording. The footage captured by these cameras are used to help review what happened in the battle or battles and are used to help compile after action reports." Hopper replied, with a slight smile.

"Captain, I hope I am not being rude or anything. However I noticed that when we told you about our fight with the Neuroi. You seemed rather indifferent about it; as if that wasn't the strangest thing you have ever encountered." Admiral Yamamoto said, intrigued as to why Hopper as well as Raikes and Boatswain Mate Lynch were not phased when they heard about the Neuroi.

Hopper gave a long drawn out sigh. "The reason for that Admiral; is because this ship is not at least on my version of Earth not first to bear the name of _John Paul Jones_. She is actually the third ship to bear the name. The thing that this has to deal with the most is the second ship to bear the name _John Paul Jones_ , an _Arleigh Burke_ -class, was sunk by aliens who were called the Regents." He said as he began to explain the RIMPAC 2012 Incident with help from Lt. Cmdr. Raikes and CPO Lynch, he was done most of the Brass was stunned, save for Admiral Whitcomb.

"Goddamn Regents, damn those guys are real brutal bastards." He muttered.

"Anything else of note?" Eisenhower asked as he got over his shock about hearing of the RIMPAC 2012 Incident.

"Actually yes, besides the JS _Fubuki_ needing a drydock and resupply. My ship is in need of resupply and repairs; most of the repairs are completed with the exception of the glass for the bridge being replaced. However other than that we are good." Hopper said.

"That I can do; I can have a floating dry dock here within two weeks, with several supporting ships as well. However we have a more pressing matter as well." Admiral Whitcomb said.

"Oh?" Hopper asked baffled.

"The more pressing matter, is that as I am sure you know the _Turbine_ was sunk with all hands by a previously unencountered Neuroi Submarine. This thing is faster, quieter, and packs a more lethal punch than any other previously encountered Neuroi submarine. We don't even have a picture of the thing," Admiral Yamamoto said.

"Okay, so what are my orders?" Hopper asked.

"Captain Hopper, your orders are after resupply and repairs are completed; you are to sortie. Your orders are to find this unknown submarine and to sink it." Admiral Yamamoto stated.

"Roger that Admiral; however I have no idea what Neuroi ships look like as well." Hopper replied.

"Alright, I will put in a request for two war books as well." Admiral Whitcomb said.

"Thank you Admiral. I think if anything; we should probably get down with the tour. If anything you will want to see the _John Paul Jones_ from stem to stern." Alex said.

"Captain, that would be very much appreciated." Eisenhower said.

 **XXXX**

The tour took the better part of a couple hours to complete. They covered everything from the Advanced Gun System forward; which when the brass was told how far the thing could lob a shell caused more than a few surprised looks. To the engine room with its four powerful Gas Turbine Engines. To finally the CIC or Combat Information Center. Even the Armory was explored.

 **XXXX**

"Here we go, the Armory for the _John Paul Jones_. Inside is assault rifles, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, Designated Marksmen Rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and even pistols." Alex explained as he opened the hatch.

Inside the armory was XM8 Modular Assault Rifles; which also included the LMG, Carbine, and DMR Versions being adapted for use by the United States Armed Forces chambered in 6.8x39mm NATO, as well as Barret M82A1 Bullpup Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifles chambered in 12.7x99mm NATO and how it was capable of picking off a human sized target from a range of 1.55 miles, to the M6 Submachine Gun the thing was built on the Close Quarters Battle Receiver and it was chambered in 5.7x28mm NATO, to in the words of General Eisenhower "The scariest shotgun he had ever seen" the stupendously lethal Remington M7 Combat Shotgun which is based on the M16 Frame and could use a 15-round clip of shells, to the Browning M2014 pistol chambered in 5.7x28mm NATO and in actuality a licensed copy of the FN Five-Seven pistol.

"I got to say, some of these weapons like the M7 Combat Shotgun puts what we got right now in terms of shotguns to shame. The ability to fire more than five shells before having to reload is very nice." General Eisenhower had remarked about the M7 Combat Shotgun.

Almost everyone had something to say, about the various weapons that they saw. They had spent roughly thirty minutes in the armory. Before moving on.

 **XXXX**

"Right, then. Here we are, the final stop on the tour. The Combat Information Center; if anything the CIC is the nerve center of the ship. This is where all of the information that the AEGIS suite draws in is then processed and turned into useful information. This is also where weapons are directed with the exception of the M2 Browning Machine Guns and 25mm Chain Guns." Hopper said as he opened the hatch and they all walked in.

General Eisenhower took one look around at all the displays and all of the information being shown and promptly said "Christ I am Confused" which earned a grin from Hopper who promptly explained that the phrase "Christ I am Confused" was a moniker that Ratings who worked in CIC used at times to explain the amount of information overload.

"So, you said earlier that the footage from your earlier battles has been recorded. Is it possible that we could see one of the engagements that you have had?" Admiral Yamamoto asked.

"Sure; that is doable. Raikes, put up on one of the screens the engagement we had with that Neuroi." Hopper ordered.

"Yessir!" Raikes replied.

Within a few moments one of the screens went from showing a RADAR plot, to suddenly crystal clear footage, and the first engagement between the Neuroi and the _John Paul Jones_ and _Fubuki_. They were stunned when they saw a blue white streak lash out from the _Fubuki_ and decimate the Neuroi in an instant. A few minutes after that the recording ended.

"What was that blue streak that came from the _Fubuki_?" Air Marshall Dowding asked.

"That was a shot from her railgun. It can't fire that heavy a round otherwise the rails will get worn out fairly quickly. The heaviest round they can fire weighs roughly 15 pounds, but a normal round weighs around 8 pounds, and they can fire sabots. The railgun has a muzzle velocity on the order of Mach 9 or something along those lines. It has a range of 40 kilometers but it is pretty damn accurate at range. Since the round is traveling so fast that blue envelope forms around the projectile; that envelope is the fourth state of matter, plasma; the sheer velocity of the round can likely put a hole through the belt armor of just about any battleship today." Hopper explained.

"Well, then. That means it can probably pick off most smaller ships with one or two shots; because of the velocity involved." Yamamoto mused.

"Indeed, I saw that thing rip an enemy corvette right in half with one shot. Likewise I have seen these things practically gut enemy ships. These things are incredibly powerful, and thus we always take shot if we know it will not hit a friendly." Hopper stated.

 **XXXX**

The meeting and tour wound down after that. With the C-47 Skytrain leaving sometime around 1450 hours. However Hopper was relieved but also grateful which he had expressed. Now however he was looking through the War Book and identifying with relative ease most of the Ysterplaat Imperial Republic Ships. That was when he got an idea.

 **XXXX**

Meanwhile at around the same time that Hopper was pouring over the War book. Beast was in the process of teaching Francesca how to fish.

"This is so boring" Francesca groaned out as she held her fishing pole that Beast had given her. Beast was an avid fisherman had as such had several fishing rods on board the _JPJ_.

"Francesca the trick with fishing, is patience as well as being quiet so you don't scare the fish away, if you have to speak use a hushed tone, less likely to scare the fish. Yet it can be rewarding as well, nothing quite matches the sense of accomplishment of bringing in a 12 foot long, 500 kilogram Atlantic Blue Marlin. When you are out in open water fishing for fish that big the fishing boat you are on, needs a specialized chair so that way you don't yanked overboard. So yes Francesca while Fishing is at times boring as hell. It can also be quite fun." Beast explained in a hushed tone.

"Really? You once managed to drag in a 500 kilogram Atlantic Blue Marlin? That is massive! I didn't think that fish that size was even catchable." Francesca exclaimed.

"Yes, I really did once land a 500 kilogram Atlantic Blue Marlin. Trust me though, they can get bigger than that. I think the World Record was 900 kilograms and was roughly 5.5 meters long." Beast said.

Francesca's jaw slackened. "That is massive! How fast can these things go?" She asked, obviously in downright curious.

"The Marlin species of fish is one of the fastest fish in the world. With some members of the Black Marlin capable of reaching an estimated top speed of 129 kilometers an hour or 80 miles per mile just by estimating how fast the fishing line on a pole unwinds when one takes the hook." Beast explained.

"Wow, that is something." Francesca said, suddenly the bobber that was attached to Francesca's line went below the water and the rod jerked suddenly. Francesca yelped and tightened her hold on the rod. "Whoa! Come on Francesca give it a jerk, set the hook!" Beast told her calmly as he put his rod down and got up to support Francesca to prevent her from falling in. With a grunt of effort Francesca yanked and set the hook. "Come on, you can do it. Reel it in." Beast said in a tone that made Francesca believe that she could do it. After nearly three minutes of reeling it in, they finally pulled it up out of the water and on to the runway.

"Beast? What sort of fish is that?" Francesca asked looking at the fish as Beast got on his hands and knees and began to pull the hook out.

"This, is a fairly good sized Brown Wrasse. A decently common fish in these waters. I'd put this guy's size at roughly a foot long. Nice Catch Francesca." Beast said with a note of pride for the young witch.

"Thanks" Francesca said.

"Here come here, if you want you can help me release him. We are only catching and then releasing them." Beast said.

"Why is that?" Francesca asked.

"It helps keeps the population up; not to mention we are just doing it for fun." Beast replied.

Francesca nodded and gently gripped the fish, it felt weird to the touch, however they then gently tossed it into the water, and with a splash the fish was gone. "Why did it feel so weird to the touch?" Francesca asked.

"Why, it has to do with the scales that cover the fish. A thin layer of mucus will generally cover a fish that aid in insulating the fish against the cold and providing some protection against predators." Beast explained.

"Wow" Francesca said.

"Indeed, tell you what Francesca. If my schedule allows it; because well I am a Boatswain Mate and thus my schedule can be fairly crazy. I will try my best to come to your practices and if needed give ideas and pointers on my very limited knowledge of Air Combat Maneuvering. However I will try my best to go fishing with you, or other activities." Beast said.

"You will?" Francesca asked.

"I will" Beast replied.

Suddenly from the direction of the bass an all too familiar tune began playing. "Sounds like dinner is ready." Beast said and Francesca nodded.

The two walked toward the base together. Francesca feeling, happy about herself again, and knowing that while she may not be able to protect everyone that she cares about, it doesn't mean that when she fails she should mourn there death but also move on in life. Yet she also learned that while the new arrivals and the newest ships and crews of the allies were new to this war. They were also very caring.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Alright, there we go! Another Chapter done! In the next chapter the** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **gets resupplied and repaired, while the** _ **Fubuki**_ **is sent into a floating dry dock for major repairs to commence. Also we will find out what Hopper's idea is. Not to mention we will see more of the USS** _ **Harder**_ **SSN-800.**

 **All in the next chapter of Battleship/Strike Witches: Preparing to Sortie!**


	5. Resupply

**A/N: Alright! Here we are! Chapter 7 of Strike Witches: Battleship! This chapter will see basic repairs completed to the** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **as well as seeing her get resupplied with much needed ordinance. While the** _ **Fubuki**_ **enters floating dry dock for major repairs, including but not limited to a pair of new Turbines, three new AEGIS RADAR, her stealth coating repaired, and a new CIWS mount put in.**

 **Also we will see more of the USS** _ **Harder**_ **SSN-800 in this chapter, note the speed for the** _ **Los Angeles**_ **-class SSN is an estimate that Tom Clancy made in one of his books, I took the liberty of guessing the top speed for the** _ **Virginia**_ **-class Boat. Also expect a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter that will give a basic idea of what will happen at some point down the line.**

 **So, grab a refreshment, take a seat, and let's get this show rolling!**

 **XXXX**

Two days had passed after meeting the Big Brass and both the crews of the _Fubuki_ and _John Paul Jones_ were beginning to settle into a routine again. Today however Beast was watching from the Starboard side Bridge wing. Watching as Francesca and Shirley cut intricate geometries through the sky.

"It sure is something to watch that's for sure." A voice said next to Beast, which caused him to jump in surprise.

"Captain" Beast said with a nod.

"What do you think of all of this? I mean with what has happened to us, I mean between winding up in the 1940s on an Alternate Earth, finding out that the world is united against a common foe, and finding out about witches and all of that?" Alex asked suddenly.

Beast pondered that for a moment before replying. "Sir, to tell you the truth, I find it interesting, sad, and at the same time weird. It is interesting because of the fact well, we are in the 1940s which means we will be seeing technology be invented that we all take for granted as well as see machines like the Tiger Tank, the Sherman Tank, the T-34, etc. in their natural environment which is the battlefield and not a museum. Yet it is also sad because it is unlikely that we will ever see our families again. But it is a little weird and awkward because of well the witches don't get me wrong while they are effective from what I have gathered they are fairly young in most cases, yet they are effective not to mention the fact that we are fighting aliens."

"Beast I was thinking nearly the exact same thing. I agree with you on all of those accounts. Still, I can't stop thinking about all of the people we were forced to leave behind." Alex said.

"I know what you mean sir. Hell we watched those Toria bastards sink the _Concord_ , _Hobart_ , and the _Iron Duke_ ; plus they nearly got us as well. Still we likely either sank or crippled that big enemy battleship." Beast said in a flat voice.

"I agree with you there." Alex replied.

Then the 42MC squaked and Raikes voice came over the circuit. "Bridge, CIC, we got a fairly large cluster of contacts heading our way, they're friendly, the IFFs are squawking Poselentsy Identification Codes." She said.

Hopper walked over to the Master Circuit and engaged the 42MC circuit. "Roger Raikes, estimated time of arrival?" Hopper asked.

"Roughly two hours sir." Raikes replied.

"Roger, carry on." Alex said before putting the phone back in its cradle.

Alex and Beast stayed on the bridge for a while longer. "Hey Beast, I have been pouring over the war book that they gave us and I am trying to figure out what could have sunk the _Turbine_. Yet none of the Ysterplaat Submarines, which are practically ancient Soviet Attack Submarine designs, well except for one; they are the _Zulu_ -class, _Whiskey_ -class, _Quebec_ -class, _Romeo_ -class, _Ming_ -class, _Foxtrot_ -class, _Tango_ -class, _Kilo_ -class, and the _November_ -class. Which means ancient designs with the exception of the _Kilo_ -class of course. However even when they are in tiptop shape, the fastest among them the _November_ -class, can't outrun a _Turbine_ -class Destroyer. Which means we are either dealing with something better than a _November_ -class Nuclear Powered Attack Boat which means if it is a new at least for the Allies a never before seen Attack Submarine; it is likely going to be either an _Alfa_ -class, _Akula_ -class, _Sierra_ -class, _Papa_ -class, or a _Yasen_ -class, while 36 plus knots would be seriously pushing it for a _Akula_ , _Sierra_ , or a _Yasen_ -class because they would have to push the reactor as hard as it can. 36 knots plus is a walk in the park for a _Papa_ -class or an _Alfa_ -class." Alex said.

"What are you getting at sir?" Beast asked wondering what Alex was getting at.

"Could it be possible that one of our own Nuclear Powered Attack Boats could have gone through that same squall submerged?" Alex asked.

"Possibly, it would have most likely have been one of the _Los Angeles_ -class Nuclear Powered Fast Attack Boat, top speed for those things is around 37 Knots, so this rules out the Japanese _Soryu_ -class, Australian _Collins_ -class, and the Singaporean _Challenger_ and _Archer_ -class boats as they are all Diesel-Electric Attack Submarines. However there weren't that many operating in the ABJA Float Operating Area, only eight boats were operating in those waters that were members of that class, and I can name them all as well, in the ABJA Float Area we had in terms of _Los Angeles_ -class boats the USS _Greenville_ SSN-772, USS _Hartford_ SSN-768, USS _Cheyenne_ SSN-773, USS _Key West_ SSN-722, USS _Chicago_ SSN-721, USS _Newport News_ SSN-750, USS _Pasadena_ SSN-752, and USS _Olympia_ SSN-717. Another possibility is that before we headed out I remember hearing a report that there was two Chinese SSNs operating in the area, both were _Type 095_ class SSNs also known as _Liao_ -class Boats to NATO(Note the Chinese _Type 095_ SSN is yet to be built so I am just taking a rough guess as to what its capabilities might be and what its reporting name might be, it is just beginning to be constructed as of right now). One of the _Type 095_ SSNs was on a neutrality patrol of all things, while the other one was on an ELINT mission probably trying to figure out what the Aristocratic Republic of Toria's next move was going to be. Yet another possibility is a British _Trafalgar_ -class and _Astute_ -class, the Brits had the HMS _Torbay_ , HMS _Talent_ , HMS _Triumph_ , and HMS _Artful_. So quite a number of possible culprits." Beast stated.

"Okay, so we have greatly narrowed it down. So the culprit is either a _Akula_ -class, _Sierra_ -class, _Alfa_ -class, _Papa_ -class, a _Yasen_ -class, _Liao_ -class, _Los Angeles_ -class, _Trafalgar_ -class, or an _Astute_ -class Nuclear Powered Fast Attack Submarine, however are there any other class of Nuclear Powered Fast Attack Submarine we are missing?" Alex asked.

Beast suddenly snapped his fingers. "Yes there is one other possible culprit." He said.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"There was a single _Virginia_ -class Nuclear Powered Fast Attack Boat assigned to the ABJA Float Operating Area. She could be the culprit as well." Beast replied in a slightly deadpan tone.

"Oh, what was her name?" Alex questioned.

"This particular _Virginia_ -class Boat was named the USS _Harder_ SSN-800. She differed from previous _Virginia_ -class Boats in the fact that she was a little longer, had an experimental nuclear reactor powering her, had larger magazines, and had more forward torpedo tubes. She was set to be the test bed for the Block V and Block VI _Virginia_ -class SSNs. She's brand new as well, roughly a year old. If she is the culprit then we will have a real devil of a time finding her." Beast said.

"Yeah, it's no secret that the USS _Harder_ was more advanced, quieter, and deadly than the _Virginia_ , _Seawolf_ , and _Los Angeles_ -class boats that preceded her. If she is the boat we have to find, to tell you the truth it will be a bitch to find her. However I have an idea." Alex replied.

"What's your idea?" Beast asked with a bit of curiosity in his voice.

"I was thinking, we could take several pictures, each of one of the possible culprits lay them out on a table, then have either Shirley or Yoshika. Not Francesca she's too delicate for a situation like this still. However I am certain that either of those two would be able to tell us what the culprit is." Alex explained.

"That might just work Captain." Beast replied.

 **XXXX**

Minna was working on paperwork in her office, when suddenly she heard a knock on the door. "Come in, its open" She said, the door opened and Alex walked, in his hand was a manila envelope.

"What is it, captain?" Minna asked as she gestured for him to take a seat.

"Commander, myself and Beast have been going over what are the possible submarines that could have sank the _Turbine_. We have narrowed it down to a couple of possible culprits. I have pictures of the possible culprits in this envelope." Alex explained as he sat down.

"Okay, so what are the possible culprits?" Minna asked.

"One thing to note is that all of the submarines that are possible culprits have something called a Teardrop hull; this makes them substantially faster underwater than current submarine designs of the era. One thing of note, five of the submarines that are likely culprits, are Russian designs or Orussian designs in your case, one is a Chinese design, two are British or Britannian designs, and the last two are American or Liberion designs. If it is any of the Russian designs, once we locate it, we will sink it without question; however if it's any of the Britannian, Liberion, or Chinese designs. We will first try and raise them on Underwater Telephone, don't ask me how the damn thing works all I do know is that it does, if that fails we will engage without question." Alex explained.

"Oh? What are the names of the designs. Would be helpful to know what they are." Minna said, as Alex opened the Manila Envelope and pulled out ten individual pictures. Each one of the submarines had teardrop shaped hulls, however for six of the designs the sail was more streamlined, tapering down with a curve that eventually went flush with the hull, but the other four had more vertical sails and didn't have any of the tapering or flushing to make it perform better submerged.

Alex then told her the names to the designs as she pointed to each one in turn. " _Akula_ -class, _Sierra_ -class, _Alfa_ -class, _Yasen_ -class, _Papa_ -class, _Liao_ -class, _Trafalgar_ -class, _Astute_ -class, _Los Angeles_ -class, and lastly the _Virginia_ -class. Each one of these submarine classes are unique, and all of them are pretty quiet. Yet each one is built for a different task in mind." He said.

"Okay, so what is the best case scenario?" Minna asked, as she looked at each picture of the possible culprits. One thing that was particularly amazing, was that apart for the picture of the _Alfa_ -class all of the pictures were in color.

"The best possible scenario would be an _Alfa_ -class, because while they have a tough titanium hull which allows these things to dive as deep as 1300 meters or more, they have a pretty noisy engine plant, however if the guy decides to run and though we will hear him, the _John Paul Jones_ never can nor never will be able to catch an _Alfa_ -class as they can do forty-two knots at flank." Alex replied.

"And the worst?" Minna asked with creeping dread.

"Worst case scenario would be either one of the _Los Angeles_ -class, a _Yasen_ -class, a _Astute_ -class, a _Liao_ -class, or the _Virginia_ -class. Mainly because those are some of the quietest, most advanced, and spectacularly lethal Fast Attack Boats in the world. However we have six things going for us." Alex replied.

"What are those six things that are going for the _John Paul Jones_?" Minna asked.

"First, we have a dedicated ASW Helicopter on board, it is equipped with a Magnetic Anomaly Detector or MAD; this is a nifty little device basically confirms that you have found a submarine, because of the fact that since the hull of a submarine is magnetic it disrupts the magnetic field due to the amount of magnetic material used to build it. Second, we have something called the Nixie Torpedo Decoy it's official designation is AN/SLQ-25, the way it works is that it makes itself which is about the size of a soda bottle, look like a larger target than the _John Paul Jones_ in an attempt to defeat the torpedo's sonar. Third the sonar set onboard the _John Paul Jones_ is a AN/SQQ-100, the AN/SQQ-100 is a ASW and this ASW sonar is one of the most sensitive ever put on a surface ship, it is tied into the AEGIS combat system, and is both a passive and active sonar set, provides underwater fire control capability, has an on board trainer and a highly evolved display subsystem, this thing provides detection, tracking, and targeting capability. Fourth our main anti-submarine is the Mark 54 MAKO Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo, this thing is called a lightweight torpedo because it is only 12 inches in diameter, however it has superb tracking ability, once this thing acquires you good luck getting it off of you; the version we have on board is the Mk 54 Mod 3 MAKO torpedo, its warhead is made of an explosive called HNIW and I am not even going to try to pronounce its proper name, is more powerful than RDX, the warhead has roughly 44 kilograms of this stuff. Fifth is Prairie which is part of two part system called Prairie-Masker, anyway Prairie works by helping reduce cavitation; Cavitation commander is where little bubbles composed of water vapor form, as these bubbles move away from the screw they collapse into themselves and create a large amount of noise, Prairie counters this by having the tips of the screw emit compressed air which translates to the bubbles form have a little bit of air inside of them, thus when they collapse not a lot of extra noise is generated. Finally Masker hides the machinery noises as well as improve sonar performance directly behind the ship; the system is composed of two bands each one being around an engine room, when activated compressed air is forced through the bands and escaped through machined perforations in the bands, this causes a barrier of air bubbles to form around the hull of the ship, which traps engine noises within the hull where it dissipates. Together the Prairie-Masker system is designed to make ship noises sound similar to rain on passive sonar, and thus forces the enemy submarine to come to periscope depth and raise a periscope to find out if it is actually raining or if there is a ship out their which thanks to our sonar we will hear him coming up to periscope depth and we can peg him with a torpedo, or he will go active with his sonar and give both the submarine and the _John Paul Jones_ an idea of where we both are." Hopper said, giving an in depth explanation of what the various things that were going for the _John Paul Jones_ were.

Minna leaned back in her chair. "That is good to know Alex. I didn't really understand most of what you said, but I get the idea. Still how are we going to find out what the culprit is?" Minna asked.

"Simple, I have a feeling that either Shirley or Yoshika would recognize the submarine that sank the _Turbine_ anywhere; I am _not_ going to drag Francesca into this, she is still mentally recovering from the shock of what happened." Hopper said.

"Captain, why do you want to know what sank the _Turbine_ at least the class of submarine that did it?" Minna asked not getting at Alex was saying.

"Commander the answer is simple. I want to know what sank the _Turbine_ so that way we can prepare the proper strategies ahead of time on how to sink the bastard or how to initiate communications. Because knowing is half the battle." Alex replied.

You could see the realization spread across Minna's face as she figured out what Alex was saying. "I get it now, you don't want to go in blind, you want to be able to have some intel on what you are facing; because it is as you put it "Knowing is half the battle" so even if you only know what the class of submarine that sank the _Turbine_ is, it will still give you a wide variety of options with how to tackle it." Minna said.

Alex simply smiled and said "Exactly commander."

 **XXXX**

Minna decided that she would ask Yoshika first. So she put aside her paperwork and told Alex to go wait in the common room. It didn't take long for Minna to find Yoshika, as she was running laps, under the watchful eye of Major Sakamoto.

"Commander" Mio said with a respectful nod.

"Major, do you mind if I borrow Yoshika for a few minutes?" Minna asked.

"Sure, only for a few minutes, though." Mio replied, she then barked "Miyafuji! The commander needs you for a few minutes!"

"Thanks" Minna said.

"No problem" Sakamoto said, a few moments later they heard Yoshika's voice reach them she sounded pretty much exhausted. "Right, Sakamoto!"

 **XXXX**

A few minutes later, Yoshika and Minna walked into the common room, Minna was surprised to see that Alex was thumbing a black object about five inches long in his hand. Yoshika decided to ask what it was. "Um, excuse me? Mr. Hopper?" She asked, in a slightly timid tone.

Alex looked up and smiled. "Yoshika, first please don't call Mr. Hopper; while I may be around 32 years of age, I am not that _old_. So please call me either Alex or Hopper, if we're in a pinch you can call me Captain Hopper or sir." He said.

Minna motioned for her to sit down, which Yoshika did. "What's this about?" Yoshika asked nervously.

"Don't worry Miyafuji, you aren't in trouble. Far from it in fact, we actually need your help in a rather serious matter," Minna said.

Yoshika breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that she wasn't trouble. "Why do you need my help?" She asked cautiously.

"Simple, Yoshika; would you be able to identify the submarine that sank the _Turbine_ if you ever saw a picture of it?" Hopper asked as he produced a Manila envelope.

"Yeah, I surely would be able to identify it if I saw it again." Yoshika stated.

"Good to hear." Hopper said as he opened the envelope and pulled out nine _color_ pictures and one in black and white. All of the pictures were of various submarines, one instantly leaped out at Yoshika as familiar.

"It was this one. This was the submarine that sank the _Turbine_." Yoshika said as she pointed to a picture of a submarine that had on the sail two periscopes and an antenna.

"Fuck" Alex muttered as the gravity of the situation of what they had to find sank in. The submarine responsible for sinking the _Turbine_ was the USS _Harder_ SSN-800. This was going to be one painful as hell mission, because the _Harder_ was a practically brand new _Virginia_ -class Fast Attack Boat.

"Thanks, Yoshika; this has helped a lot." Hopper said as he gathered up the pictures and put them back in the Manila envelope.

"No problem, Alex." Yoshika said as she got up and went back outside to do more training.

After Yoshika had left and was out of earshot. "God fucking dammit" Alex cursed like the sailor he was. Minna sighed "Not what you were hoping for?" She asked.

"Not at all, not one bit let me tell you. I am not happy about having to track down one of the quietest submarines in the world. A single Mark 48 Mod 7 in the correct place will downright cripple the _John Paul Jones_ if not sink her out right. Plus from what computer simulations we have run, a Mark 48 Mod 7 torpedo will not be fooled easily by the Nixie. We better hope to god that the Captain of the _Harder_ is willing to listen to reason." Alex said his voice a low growl.

"Either way, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Better go ahead and inform the crew." Minna told him.

"Yeah your right. Besides the resupply ships will be here soon. I got to get back to the _John Paul Jones_." Alex said as he got up and walked out of the room.

 **XXXX**

Meanwhile Eila was in her room checking her tarot cards. She went to read the future for the 501st Joint Fighter Wing.

The card she pulled was the "Hardship" card. It showed a harbor at twlight, possibly Scapa Flow in flames, while in the foreground it showed the _John Paul Jones_ a fire and listing heavily to starboard multiple streams of tracers racing away from the ship with three looking like orange-red beams and rocketing away from the ship was several rockets no _missiles_ she reminded herself, in the sky Neuroi beam and bolt fire with tracer fire combined with fiery trails from plummeting aircraft and lastly contrails cut intricate geometries through the evening sky, and most disconcerting of all was in the background a monstrous slate gray form being partially illuminated by titanic muzzle blast that dwarfed even the muzzle blast of the _Yamato_.

Eila shuddered unconsciously, trying to figure out what the card meant. _What could this mean?_ She thought as she looked at the card trying to figure out what it meant. "I hope this doesn't mean what I think it does." Eila said, nervously, however she knew that a major battle was likely in the future for the 501st JFW. The problem was when it would occur.

 **XXXX**

 _Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea_

The USS _Harder_ was at a depth of 600 feet, heading southeast traveling at a speed of 8 knots. For all intents and purposes she was invisible operating just above the thermocline if things got too crazy for the submarine could simply dive an extra forty feet, slow down to five knots, rig for silent running, and effectively disappear into the inky blackness of the ocean depths like a ghost. Combined with the fact that she has an ultra-quiet propulsor and was covered in Anechoic Tiles; meant that she produced very little noise at her current speed and thus was all but invisible to passive sonar and active sonar would have a devil of a time getting a good return off of her.

 _Our main problem is supplies._ Captain Mancuso thought as he walked into CIC; as usual not a lot happened in response. Then again there wasn't a lot of space on a submarine to stand up and salute plus noise was generally kept to a minimum. Yet Andrew also knew that the _Harder_ had fled from Surabaya, Java with a full load of food, 12 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles in her VLS, 20 Mk 48 Mod 7 ADCAP Torpedoes, and 16 UGM-84H Silent SLAM-ERs. They now had 19 Mk 48 Mod 7 ADCAP Torpedoes.

"What's the plan skipper?" Cramer asked.

"I think we should continue on our current course for now, however the instant we detect something that matches whatever the hell that destroyer that attacked us, I want to make our depth 675 feet, slow to five knots, and rig ship for silent running, and slip away." Mancuso replied.

"I agree, sir. Good call." Cramer stated.

After twenty minutes later, the "Waterfall" display in the sonar room began to stack dots across the screen. "Conn, sonar." Victor Hendrix said.

"Conn aye. What is it Mr. Hendrix?" Mancuso said.

"We got a sonar contact bearing 345, sounds like a _Kilo_ -class Submarine on the surface recharging its batteries, sounds like number 67, a known _Kilo_ -class that is in service in the Republic of Toria Navy. Bastard must have a problem with his snorkel; either way this is too good a target to pass up." Victor said.

"Okay, track that guy. Let us know if something else pops up." Mancuso ordered.

"Yessir" Victor replied.

"Helmsman, course change. Make your bearing 345, speed 10 knots." Mancuso ordered.

"Making my bearing 345, speed 10 knots, aye." The helmsman said as he changed to course.

 **XXXX**

Nearly thirty minutes later after detecting the _Kilo_ -class that was recharging its batteries. More green dots began to stack across the "Waterfall" display.

"Conn, sonar." Victor said once he knew for sure that he was hearing another ship out their.

"Conn aye, what is it Mr. Hendrix?" Andrew asked.

"Got another contact. It's on the surface as well, roughly ten miles past that _Kilo_ -class. It sounds like a _Monsoon_ -class Destroyer." Victor replied.

"Okay, thanks Mr. Hendrix; keep us posted, anything changes alert us ASAP." Mancuso stated.

"Aye aye, sir!" Victor replied.

 **XXXX**

The _Harder_ slowly approached their unsuspecting prey. Mancuso had General Quarters missile manned, and had the Mark 48 Mod 7 in tube four removed and a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile loaded instead, the range to the targets was forty-five miles to the _Kilo_ -class and fifty-five miles to the _Monsoon_ -class.

"How are going to do this, sir?" The chief weapons officer asked.

"When we fire, I want two Harpoons targeted at the _Monsoon_ -class as it is a bigger threat and fire one at the _Kilo_ -class, we will have all three missiles do a "Pop-up maneuver" and nail the bastards." Mancuso answered.

"Aye aye sir" The chief weapons officer said.

 **XXXX**

Five minutes later the _Harder_ was ready to strike. "Open tubes 4, 5, and 6; firing point procedures tube four!" Mancuso ordered, there was a shriek of compressed air the UGM-84H also known as the silent SLAM-ER came out of the tube and the capsule took it to the surface once the missile came to the surface the front and end caps of the capsule came off and the missile fired, quickly coming to its top speed of 647 miles per hour.

Andrew waited two minutes before giving his next order. "Firing point procedures tube five! Firing point procedures tube six!" He ordered. Twin shrieks of compressed air resounded through the hull as two more UGM-84Hs were launched at the assumed _Monsoon_ -class Guided Missile Destroyer, but in fact it was a Ysterplaat Imperial Republic _Dragoon_ -class Destroyer or as the allies called it, a _Silent_ -class Destroyer.

 **XXXX**

Two minutes and thirty seconds after launch the first UGM-84H turned on its powerful acquisition radar and acquired the target. The UGM-84H then without warning climbed to 1800m and then nosed over and dove. The missile slammed into the _Kilo_ -class which had problems with its snorkel and now it cost them. The missile impaled the submarine where the sail meet the hull, penetrated the hull and then 800lb of WDU-40/B penetrating blast fragmentation warhead detonated.

The force of the explosion was tremendous and the hurled pieces of debris as high as two hundred fifty feet into the air, the sail just ceased existing while the power of the blast traveled downward, ruptured the hull, and then snapping the _Kilo_ -class submarine in half as effortlessly as one would snap a twig. The Ysterplaat Imperial Republic Navy had neglected the requests of the captain of this particular _Kilo_ -class and now it had cost them. The _Kilo_ -class was sent to the bottom in two twisted pieces and had instantly become grave for 52 Neuroi seamen.

 **XXXX**

The other two missiles went screaming past where the _Kilo_ -class was and turned on their RADAR seeker heads. Three minutes had elapsed and then acquired the target. The enemy destroyer had gone to General Quarters and had begun moving and began a slight turn towards the incoming missiles, while the Neuroi AA guns waited.

Suddenly both missiles rapidly climbed to 1800m nosed over and dove. The Neuroi AA guns opened fire, filling the sky with blazing red Neuroi bolts, trying to put a wall of energy up between the ship and the missiles. The strategy of putting up a wall of steel or in this case energy between the ship and the incoming missiles didn't work.

The missiles plunged through the wall of energy will hardy a mark on them and impacted the destroyer in two separate locations. The first missile plunged into the deck, while the other plunged into the superstructure, and then both exploded.

The detonation of nearly 1600lb of high-explosive fragmentation warhead inside the destroyer had catastrophic results. The devastation wrought on by the first missile would have been enough to downright _sink_ a ship. The explosion ripped through the hull and blew out a thirty foot long by ten foot long hole in the bottom of the hull, the blast also sent everyone and everything that was not secured crashing to the deck, completely wiped out the amidships boiler rooms, causing a large secondary steam explosion, broke the back of the ship, and started a large number of fires. The devastation that the second missile brought on, was just adding insult to injury. The damage that the second missile caused was catastrophic, the superstructure of the Neuroi destroyer fragmented, hurling pieces burning pieces of debris the smallest the size of a pea, the largest roughly the size of a Willys Jeep in all directions with some fragments reaching as high as two hundred feet into the air, more fires came to life and began ravage a greatly weakened hull; flames and thick oily black smoke billowed into the air, visible for at least twenty miles around. With the engines completely destroyed and thus no power to run the pumps combined with the fact that their was a tremendous gash in the bottom of the hull with water pouring into the stricken the Destroyer, she rapidly began to list to starboard.

The captain realized that his ship was lost, no doubt about it, with no power to run the pumps so they could put fire retardant foam on the flames or run the pumps to try and combat the flooding, that left only one option: abandon ship. So he engaged the ship's disaster beacon after typing out the message he wanted it to transmit. After that was done, he did quick sweep of his rapidly dying ship one last time, finding no one left alive, he quickly made his way to the stern, donned a lifejacket and jumped into the water.

That was when they heard the low drone of four Human piston aircraft radial engines. Probably one of their ASW Search Aircraft and got attracted by the smoke. The captain thought, as the plane appeared on the horizon, it appeared to be one of those big old Liberion PB2Y-5 Coronado Flying Boats, although in his personal opinion that thing was more like a Small Flying _Ship_ , just like the Karlslandian Blohm & Voss BV 222 and Blohm & Voss BV 238, as well as the Britannian Short Sunderland III, and finally the Fusoan Kawanishi H8K2, well that was his opinion on those things anyway but the Intelligence Bureau said they were flying boats.

 **XXXX**

"Great god almighty!" Breathed the pilot of the Coronado, Lt. Alexander Briggs. Lt. Briggs Was a 28 year old native from Yuma Arizona. Briggs was a tall man coming in at just over 5 feet 11 inches tall, and had the muscular physique of a large bear. He had brown hair so dark that it looked black and he had dark grey eyes. And right now, he was looking at a screwed over _Silent_ -class destroyer if he ever saw one.

Smoke was climbing skyward while the superstructure was simply engulfed in fire. The _Silent_ -class was rapidly listing to starboard. "That is incredible, what could have done this?" Gaped Briggs copilot.

"I have no fucking clue" Briggs replied watching as the destroyer now on its side, began to slip down by the stern. The ship slipped gracefully below the waves. Leaving the crew of the big powerful Liberion Flying Boat baffled at what could have done such massive damage to a _Silent_ -class Destroyer.

 **XXXX**

However Ysterplaat Imperial Republic Navy Theater Command Mediterranean picked up the transmission from the _Silent_ -class Destroyer that the _Harder_ had sunk. It read "We've been hit by two Anti-ship Missiles and is sinking, not, repeat, not a known allied model. Attack profile was that of a Poselentsy Federation Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile."

That simple message was enough for Ysterplaat Imperial Republic Navy GHQ Mediterranean Theater Command to dispatch a large hunter-killer group with orders to find and sink it. Said hunter-killer group had fifteen Il-38s Allied Reporting Name "Reverb", eight Tu-142MKs Allied Reporting Name "Noisy", five _Hunter_ -class ASW Destroyers, eight _Joker_ -class Frigates, five _Sneaker_ -class Submarines ( _Tango_ -class), seven _Executioner_ -class Submarines, three _Scylla_ -class Submarines ( _Kilo_ -class Submarine), two _Manticore_ -class Submarines ( _Lada_ -class Submarine), a dozen _Mauler_ -class Corvettes ( _Steregushchy_ -class Corvette), and as the flagship of the HUK Group a single _Roarer_ -class Battlecruiser.

To make matters worse, all of the Ysterplaat Ships in this particular HUK Group had from at most three to at least one Ka-27PLs Allied Reporting Name "Skrat". The "Skrat" is a ASW helicopter and is equipped with Sonobuoys, Dipping sonar, MAD Gear, and radar. The "Skrat" was rarely seen but whenever one did pop-up the Allied Submarine that the Neuroi were trying to kill rarely managed to escape at all. It could be armed with ASW Torpedoes or Depth Charges.

This large scale force set sail from Santorini sailing west to find and sink the _Harder_.

 **XXXX**

"Bulls-eye! We nailed them both!" Hendrix yelled as he heard the breaking up noises on both targets.

"Hell yeah!" Andrew said as CIC broke into cheers. This was a damn good way to start a war patrol!

Yet what Andrew didn't know, was that when they had sunk the enemy destroyer. They had kicked a hornet's nest, and were soon going to be in the thick of trouble.

Twenty-minutes after they sank both of those targets Andrew stood down from General Quarters and then resumed course. Unknowingly heading right for the enemy HUK group.

 **XXXX**

The resupply group had arrived, and well, to the Witches it appeared to be fairly chaotic. A repair team was replacing the shredded triple torpedo mount with a new one yet it was painted grey instead of black so it matched the ship. While both forward and aft teams were swarming around open hatches lowering new missiles of various types into them or were sending 155mm shells and lowering them into the magazine or were resupplying the stock of torpedoes for the tubes and ASW helicopter. Large ammunition drums that were filled to the nighes with 25mm ammunition was being craned aboard as well.

"Man, it feels so good knowing that we will have a full load of SM-6s, RIM-162s, ASROCs, Naval SLAM-ERs, Mark 54s, CIWS ammo, and lastly 155 ammo." Alex said absolutely jovial at the fact that his ship was being fully armed and soon was going to have her fuel bunkers full as well; the run at flank left pretty much at only 22,000 gallons thus they had only one turbine running.

"It sure does Hopper. They are making some real nice progress on the _Fubuki_ and are getting ready for her to sail. She's going to be escorted to Naples, Romagna where she will enter floating dry dock. She will be escorted by a pair of friendly DDGs; the ONS _Justice_ and ONS _Dependable_. She will make it no problems." Beast said watching as the deck division he had put together was working like a well-oiled machine and was in the process of removing the last SM-3 from its cell as it wasn't likely they would have to fire them and thus just taking up space.

"Yeah, although it will be hard to find the _Harder_. It is also likely that we will encounter enemy submarines, which appear to be for the most part pretty old boats, mainly _November_ -class, _Foxtrot_ -class, _Tango_ -class, _Romeo_ -class, and _Ming_ -class boats. However the ones that got me concerned are the _Kilo_ -class boats and _Lada_ -class Boats, although we might encounter the occasional _Kalina_ -class as well, because they are so damn quiet. I can't wait to met the liaison they are sending as well for this mission." Alex stated.

"Yeah I agree skipper, I've heard he is a Karlslandian; commander of a Sub chaser that was sunk recently." Beast said.

"Okay, that is good to know." Alex said.

"No problem sir." Beast said.

The resupply continued for another four hours; once the resupply was done, the _John Paul Jones_ was armed with 84 RIM-162 ESSMs, 54 RGM-84J SLAM-ER Dual Purpose Missiles capable of hitting Sea-based and Ground-based targets, 27 AROCS, and 48 SM-6s for her VLS. She would also besides getting a new triple torpedo mount be getting her Mark 54 loadout replenished. The reason that she wasn't getting any Tomahawks or SM-3s was because the RGM-84J Naval SLAM-ER could hit both sea and ground targets, plus the punch was more pinpoint than that of a Tomahawk and more devastating as the explosive used was the same that the Mk 54 Mod 3 used for a warhead. The reason she got no SM-3s was because it was highly unlikely she would have to use them.

 **XXXX**

The liaison that had been assigned to the USS _John Paul Jones_ was currently sitting in a Ju-52 heading to the 501st JFW, only roughly eight people knew of his sudden reassignment.

His name was Otto Pollmann and he had been slated to be given the _Z54_ after his previous command the _UJ 2210_ had been sunk by enemy Patrol Boats. Yet now he was a liaison, which _he_ had not been expecting.

"Kaptainlieutenant, we will be arriving at Pescara shortly." The pilot of the Ju-52 said.

Pollmann nodded, _Soon I will be able to figure what all of this all about. Then go back to my job in finding Neuroi submarines and sending them to bottom._ He thought.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Alright! There we go! Chapter 5 is completed! The** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **has been rearmed, refueled, and is ready to go kick some ass! However the** _ **Fubuki**_ **won't be seeing action for a while as she will have to go to Naples for access to a full yard** **and floating dry dock for repairs.**

 **In the next chapter, the** _ **Harder**_ **really winds up in the shit when that HUK Group finds her and begins to hunt her. The next chapter will focus a lot on the** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **and the** _ **Harder**_ **, also of note, we will see the introduction of two new witches who will be assigned to the** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **to help her against large-type Neuroi attacks. All of this and more in the next chapter of Strike Witches: Battleship: The Hunt begins!**


	6. The Hunt Begins

**A/N: Alright here we go! The Hunt begins now!** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **haves some fun against enemy submarines while the** _ **Harder**_ **really winds up in shit, will the** _ **Harder**_ **survive? How well will the** _ **John Paul Jones**_ **do against Neuroi submarines. Find out now!**

 **In case you're wondering, as of right now in story, it's mid-June there about, 1944.**

 **So with that in mind, grab a refreshment, take a seat, and now let's get this show rolling!**

* * *

Otto Pollmann looked out the window and gasped, the Ju-52 was making a long slow turn giving him a nice view of the ship he was going to be a liaison. _They call something_ THAT _size a destroyer?! God, I wonder what they consider Cruisers and Battleships._ He thought as he got a good look at the thing.

The ship was large, roughly the size of a Light Cruiser, yet it seemed that it would barely qualify as a Frigate in the Liberion Navy. Then again maybe it was like those Blue Neuroi Destroyers, where the main armament was dozens of guided rockets and thus they only had one main battery gun mount and several smaller close in point defense mounts.

These were all things that Otto Pollmann was thinking about as the Ju-52 came in for a landing.

* * *

Alex smiled slightly as he watched the Ju-52 come in for a landing, it must have been the transport for the Liaison; he had read in a message from HQ after he relayed the situation of what had happened with the _Turbine_ and they had thankfully seen his way, but had agreed that the Captain would most likely be court martialed for destroying an Allied ship.

The message had also stated the name of the Liaison as well as he rank. Hauptmann Otto Pollmann. _Good._ Alex thought as thought about the Liaison they were getting, a man who knew his stuff in terms of ASW Warfare. The message had also stated that he had been briefed on the situation and how delicate it was.

Hopper looked at Beast and said. "Please go pick our Liaison up."

Beast nodded, "Will do sir!" He replied.

* * *

Hauptmann Otto Pollmann gathered his things and clambered out of the Ju-52; he looked at the ship in front of him. He knew instantly that it was from a different world. The hull and superstructure was painted storm grey, while the number on the bow was emblazoned in a stark bright white, with black outline. The number was 1006. Must have held some meaning, but what it was Pollmann had no idea in the slightest.

 _Great, how I am I supposed to get there?_ He thought, when suddenly he saw that something was being lowered into the water; it appeared to be a launch of some type. After it was in the water, an engine turned over and the launch dashed away from the ship with amazing speed. It was on par with Britannian and Liberion MTBs in terms of speed, maybe even faster!

"Hauptmann" a voice said from behind him. Pollmann whirled, and standing right there was Commander Wilcke of the 501st. "Ma'am" He said.

"It would be best if you use the quay. That is where the launch will be going." Minna said simply.

"Thank you ma'am, I better be going!" Pollmann said, then after a sharp salute hurried toward the Quay.

When he got there he was not surprised in the slightest to see that the Launch had already made it to the Quay. Once he got to where the Launch was, he was greeted by a broad-shouldered man who had introduced himself as Chief Boatswain Mate Walter Lynch, but had also told him that unless the situation was critical that he was to call him by his nickname of either "Boats" or "Beast". With that out of the way, he had then been told to hang on, and then after Pollmann had grabbed one of the silver hand rails found out why, when the launch dashed away from the quay at incredible speed.

* * *

"What's the name of the ship that I am liaisoning?" Pollmann asked Beast as the ship in question came into view.

"Her name is USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-1006. She is a _Bunker Hill_ -class Guided Missile Destroyer. Yet she has more firepower on board than the _Krif_ -class of Light Cruiser, she can easily blow them out of the water with incredible ease." Beast stated.

"Thanks, that is good to know. Wait, more firepower than a _Krif_ class Light Cruiser?" Pollmann asked stunned.

"She sure does. Not to mention, she's pretty much fully patched up and her armaments have been restocked. She can go nose-to-nose with a _Roarer_ class Battlecruiser and win." Beast replied.

" _Damn_ , I guess that means you should never piss a _Bunker Hill_ class Guided Missile Destroyer off. Mainly because it will drown you in firepower." Pollmann stated.

"Generally stands to reason. Although don't get me wrong, you never want to be on the receiving end of an Alpha Strike from an AEGIS Warship." Hopper replied.

"Alpha Strike?" Pollmann asked confused.

"An Alpha Strike is where we launch multiple missiles, usually a good percentage of the ordinance we have onboard at a single target or multiple targets. Problem is, it usually leaves us rather naked in terms of defending ourselves in case the enemy launches a counter attack. I have only done an Alpha Strike once while commanding a ship, and it was the old _John Paul Jones_ , an _Arleigh Burke_ class Guided Missile Destroyer." Hopper said.

"So it's similar to when a Liberion or Britannian Aircraft Carrier launches the majority of it's fighters, torpedo bombers, and dive bombers in one massive strike against the enemy?" Pollmann asked.

"Exactly." Hopper replied.

* * *

On board the _Harder_ , it was tense. A large scale Hunter-Killer Group was actively hunting for the powerful _Virginia_ -class Fast Attack Boat.

" _Conn, sonar, got a contact! It's a November! He just opened his torpedo tubes and probably has us dialed in!"_ Hendrix barked as the powerful sonar picked up a _November_ -class that had been running silent; this one had them dialed in, this was the fourth enemy submarine they had encountered today that had shot at them. Moments later he heard several shrieks of compressed air coming from the _November_ , it had just fired one, no at least four torpedoes at them!

"Conn! Multiple torpedoes in the water! C43s! Bearing 065! Its that _November_!" Hendrix snapped.

 _Damn! Damn! Damn!_ Mancuso thought as he barked out orders for the _Harder_ to turn away from the torpedoes and go to flank speed, and to also fire a pair of snapshots back on the bearing of the _November_. To evade the four or five torpedoes that _November_ had just fired. They were being hunted by what had to be the largest Hunter-Killer Group ever assembled!

So far they had detected four _Tango_ -class submarines, a _Lada_ -class, three _November_ -class submarines, plus at least eight ASW Aircraft all of them Bears was searching for them at the moment, and more contacts kept being detected! This was getting worse by the second!

However the _Harder_ had struck back, they had sent two _Tangos_ and the _Lada_ to the bottom with a single torpedo apiece. The _November_ heard the incoming Mark 48s, cut the wires on its torpedoes and went to flank, cavitating heavily as it did so; the Mark 48s acquired the _November_ and bored in for the kill, the first slammed into the hull of the submarine thirty feet forward of the portside shaft, and the second slammed in almost the exact same place. The torpedoes exploded and popped the seals around the portside shaft and the engine room flooded. In desperation the captain of the rapidly dying submarine blew all ballast yet the attempt failed as the fatally wounded submarine began her final descent into the depths.

Yet the _Harder_ still had torpedoes coming at her that she had to worry about. "Deploy countermeasures!" Andrew ordered. "Aye, sir! Deploying countermeasures!" The chief weapons officer said and then from two small tubes near the back of the submarine two decoys shot forth and began producing all kinds of noise to lure enemy torpedoes.

The trick worked, the four torpedoes that the _November_ had fired at the _Harder_ took the bait and began to circle around trying to kill the decoys.

"Helmsman make your speed four knots! Let's try and figure out what is trying to kill us now!" Mancuso ordered trying to catch his breath, that had been the fifth salvo of torpedoes that the _Harder_ had managed to evade within two hours! This was beginning to become a little on the crazy side!

"Aye sir, making my speed four knots!" The helmsman replied.

First a "May" had gotten them on a MAD pass and had then promptly dropped an APR-3E torpedo, they had barely evaded that torpedo, had the drop been a little better the _Harder_ would be resting on the bottom. Then before they had even had a chance to catch their breath a _Tango_ -class had popped up and fired a pair of Yu-6 heavy torpedoes, which the _Harder_ had easily evaded and then with a single Mark 48, sent the bastard responsible to the bottom. Then a "Bear" had dropped nearly a dozen S3V Zagon Guided Depth Charges, while none had hit the _Harder_ , some had detonated within 20 meters of the submarine making her shake violently. Twelve minutes after that had happened, a _Lada_ -class painted the area with its active sonar, while they hadn't gotten any returns on the _Harder_ , she had been a major threat to the submarine, a single Mark 48 had dispatched her. Twenty minutes had passed before suddenly another _Tango_ came closer than any other of the enemy attacks so far at sinking the _Harder_ , it had fired a spread of VA-111 Shkval 2s, six of them in fact, one had gone screaming over the hull of the _Harder_ missing by a scant two or three _meters_. The _Tango_ trying to reload then caught a Mark 48 which sank it with ease. Lastly that _November_ had appeared.

" _Conn, sonar."_ Hendrix said.

"Conn, aye. What is it Hendrix?" Mancuso asked.

" _We are in real deep trouble here sir. Sonar is not painting a pretty picture at all. Seems that the job of those two_ Tangos _, that_ Lada _, the_ November _, and those two aerial attacks was to guide us right into a real web of trouble."_ Hendrix replied.

"What sort of a real web of trouble?" Mancuso asked with increasing dread.

" _Sonar is picking up a_ Kirov _, five_ Udaloy-II _s, eight_ Neustrashimyy _s, a dozen_ Steregushchy _s, and seven Bear-Fs. That is what we can_ hear _at the moment. I am certain that they have more than that in the area. The enemy force is beginning to form a formation that ensures we will be engaged by at least one enemy ship if we are detected. I am also certain that they will have more submarines in the area."_ Hendrix said in a deadpan tone.

"Christ. We can't back out of this. That is likely where their submarines are. We can't go forward because of all of those enemy ships. They are probably packing a metric ton of ASW Helicopters as well. Looks like our only hope is to fight our way out. Alright then, carry on." Mancuso said.

" _Aye aye sir!"_ Hendrix said.

 _Shit! This is not good at all! We might not have_ enough _weapons to fight our way out! Goddamned this is going to be tough! Looks like we will have to live up to the name of the_ Harder _of World War II. As the old saying goes, Once more unto the Breach._ Mancuso thought as he prepared himself for what was likely going to be the longest day of his career and possibly his last as well.

"Right, General Quarters all hands man your battle stations, rig ship for depth charge." Mancuso ordered. The sound of hatches closing as quietly as possible, the sounds of people running to their posts, etc. Passed quietly through the hull. Within a span of two minutes the USS _Harder_ SSN-800 was fully ready, with watertight integrity at maximum, all battle station posts manned, to engage the enemy in what might be her final battle.

* * *

While the _Harder_ was in the shit, with her situation getting worse by the minute. Two United States Navy Witches were flying toward Pescara, having been suddenly reassigned from the USS _Ranger_ CV-4, and their squadron VF-41 'The Red Rippers', there callsigns being Rodeo fourteen and fifteen respectively. Both were wearing a new type of Uniform that the United States Navy was trying made specifically for Witches. In essence it was similar to the United States Navy Working Aviation Khaki Uniform, however the key difference was that they both had khaki skirts on that ran to about an inch above the knees, the Navy was also adopting a variation of the Service Dress, Dungarees, and Working Uniforms for Witches; rumors were also going around that the Army, Army Air Corps, Marines, and the Coast Guard were planning to do the same thing.

Their names were Rebecca Fencer and Claudia Powers. Both were roughly 17 and half years old. They both held the rank of O-1, Ensign.

Rebecca Fencer hailed from Wichita, Kansas. She had Hazelnut Hair and Forest Green eyes and fair skin, she held the rank of ensign. Her magic ability was healing magic. The weapon she carried was a .30 Caliber AN/M2 Machine Gun, while her sidearm was a M1911. Also for this mission, she was carrying a Sea Bag that contained a few spare uniforms and her personal effects, which was a small teddy bear, a picture of her squadron, a picture of her family, a pocket edition Holy Bible, and a couple of Captain America Comics. Her striker unit was a Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat. She was inquisitive and always asked the proper questions when they needed to be asked, the same was true for her best friend Claudia Powers. Another thing was she had been flying for the United States Navy as a witch since March of 1939.

Claudia Powers hailed from Atlanta, Georgia. She had chocolate brown hair and brilliant Amber Eyes and a moderate Tan, just like her longtime friend and wingman her striker unit is a F6F-5 Hellcat. Her magic ability is 3 Dimensional Space Understanding. Her weapon was also a .30 Caliber AN/M2 Machine Gun, while her sidearm is a M1908 Type 5 Colt Pocket Hammerless, but also for this flight she was carrying Sea Bag that contained her personal effects and a couple of spare uniforms, which wasn't much a picture of her fighter squadron, a picture of her family, and the Dog Tags of her older brother, Jonathan, who had been in the army, but had been killed during the Battle of Kasserine Pass, even after several years the loss of her brother still hurt. She had been flying for the Navy since June of 1939.

"When will we be their Powers?" Rebecca asked, her voice soft as usual.

"Twenty minutes Rebecca. I know it was a bit of a hike from the _Ranger_ to Pescara, pushing the limit of our range. However we were both picked personally for this assignment, so it must be important." Claudia replied.

"I know, but I am trying to figure out what it could be. It is a mystery to me." Rebecca said.

"Tell me about it." Claudia said, baffled for why they were suddenly being reassigned. But then again, there CO had stated that it was important and a special posting at that. So maybe being suddenly detached from their squadron and assigned to a new ship was a good thing.

* * *

"I have to admit, you have a very impressive ship here Kaptain." Pollmann said as he walked into CIC with Captain Hopper.

"Thank you Hauptman Pollmann. The _John Paul Jones_ is one of the most advanced ships in the entire United States Navy where I came from. She has also been through a lot of action in her short service life." Alex said.

Pollmann was amazed by the vast array of technology that was in the _John Paul Jones_ 's Combat Information Center. The amount of various stations plus the amount of information that was being sucked in by the advanced "AEGIS Combat Suite" was incredible. The _John Paul Jones_ could with this advanced sensor suite detect, track, and if needed engage a target before that it was known she was even there until it was far too late.

"This is incredible Kaptain Hopper. Where is my post going to be during Battle stations? I don't want to interfere with your crew during combat operations." Pollmann asked.

"Simple, you will be on the bridge, that is your post, not to mention mine as well. In the meantime you think you can find your rack?" Hopper asked.

"Yes, I can." Pollmann replied.

"That is good to hear. Now all we are waiting for before we can shove off, is the two witch detachment from the _Ranger_. Then we can go sub hunting." Alex stated.

"Good to hear. What are the names of the two witches?" Pollmann asked.

"According to the dossier we were given, they are Ensigns Claudia Powers and Rebecca Fencer. Both fly F6F-5 Hellcat Strikers and the weapon they use is the .30 Caliber AN/M2 Machine Gun. They have both seen service in the United States Navy since the late 1930s and are accomplished witches with 15 kills between them. So if any large types do come knocking we can easily vector them onto the bastard with ease." Hopper stated.

"That is good to hear Kaptain; what are their callsigns going to be when they are assigned to ze _John Paul Jones_?" Pollmann asked.

"Well, our callsign when it comes to stuff like this is Lima. Our Seahawk's callsign is Anvil. But that's United States Navy fashion for you. However we could give them the callsigns Rapier 1 and 2 respectively, that ought to work, makes it easier to identify them on tactical plot. When they land they will be known as Rapier Team." Hopper replied.

"Makes sense, alright I like it. Anything else I should know?" Pollmann asked.

"Yes, one last thing in fact. On our world all of the Ysterplaat Submarines have different names then they do here. So if you hear us call out the for example contact is a _Ming_ -class that means their is a _Basilisk_ -class out there. I will tell you all of the various reporting names for known Ysterplaat Submarines later. Those names are NATO reporting names, I will show you our warbook later, you see some surprising similarities between some of the enemy ships and the ones that we could have faced on our world." Hopper said.

"I look forward to that sir." Pollmann replied.

"Good to hear; also I have informed the crew about the witches. Don't be surprised if we ever have to pull a US Army Air Corps Airman or Witch out of the drink if someone says "Get that Zoomie out of the water!" because well Zoomie is a slang term for USAF or in this case USAAC members similar to how USMC Marines are called "Jarheads" or how the Army boys are called "Grunts". It's just slang in the military, our old military." Alex said.

"Got it, so expect slang that I have never even heard before. Sort of figured that." Pollmann said.

Hopper chuckled slightly. "That's right." he said as he gestured for Pollmann to walk with him.

They left CIC behind. Heading towards the bridge. That's when Pollmann noted that there was an almost imperceptible limp to Hopper's motions, which while they were rather fluid and would have made most special mission operators look in awe. It also showed that Hopper had been through hell, probably on several occasions.

"Kaptain, I hope I am not being rude. But, I've noticed that you have a slight limp. What's up with that?" Pollmann asked.

Hopper stopped walking. "That Kaptain, is a bit of a long-story. Longer than I would normally care to share. But, I will be willing to explain it over dinner." He said.

"I understand." Pollmann replied before following Hopper to the mess hall. It was rather easy to get turned around and lost on the _JPJ_ as Pollmann heard several crew members call the _John Paul Jones_.

* * *

Back onboard the _Harder_ , the situation was getting more and more tense as the Neuroi searched for their prey. However, the _Virginia_ class Fast Attack Boat was proving to be a real bastard to find. Particularly because the _Harder_ was some two-hundred fifty feet below the thermal layer and was moving at a mere three knots.

" _Conn sonar."_ Hendrix whispered over the comm. They were at Ultra-Quiet. Which meant barely any noise at all was allowed to be generated.

"Conn aye, what is it Hendrix?" Mancuso asked in a whisper as well.

" _Got two sonar contacts. One is a_ Tango _designated Master-10 and the other is a_ November _designated Master-11. Damn, the Toria Bastards really want us dead. Still, I am wondering where did they get most of this military tech?"_ Hendrix asked.

"We can figure that out later. Anything else to report?" Mancuso asked.

" _Yessir. The May's are still laying sonar buoys. Passive and active lines. Guess they haven't started doi-"_ Hendrix was saying before suddenly _BA-WAH_! The Low-Frequency Sonar blast slammed through the hull of the _Harder_ , somehow something got the drop on them and pegged them with a Low-Frequency Sonar.

" _SHIT! That was an_ Udaloy-II _sir, Master-12! He most certainly got us with his low-frequency sonar! Damnit! Bastard snuck up on us by being in our baffles!"_ Hendrix barked.

"Secure from silent-running! Helmsman make your speed eight knots! Fire-control party, get a solution going on that _Udaloy_ , designated Master 12! Prepare to launch countermeasures!" Mancuso barked. He cursed himself for not being able to deploy the towed sonar array, mainly due to how chaotic everything was, because the towed sonar array while it negated the baffles blind spot, it could only be used at certain speeds and maneuvering tended to negate the effectiveness. With the pickle they were in, suddenly having to go to flank speed to evade a torpedo or go evasive in order to avoid depth charges could result in damage to the array, not to mention, deciding to do sprint and drift with the TB-29 deployed was a bad idea, because of the amount of time it would take to deploy and then recover the thing.

The thrum of the _Harder_ 's reactor picked up slightly and the submarine increased speed. _BA-WAH!_ The sharp, spine-shivering blast of another low-frequency sonar ping resounded through the hull of the submarine.

"Helmsman, come right thirty degrees, maintain current speed of eight knots!" Mancuso ordered.

"Aye sir!" The Helmsman replied.

 _PONG!_ Another sonar blast reverberated through the hull of the _Harder_. " _Conn, sonar! That wasn't the_ Udaloy _! Shit, that was Master-7! The other_ Lada _! Master-7 and 12 most certainly have a firing solution!"_ Hendrix called out.

"Fire control party! Get me a TMA on Master-7 now! Hendrix, keep an eye on Master-12 for us! Helmsman bring us about to bearing 320 relative, make your speed 10 knots! Fire a noise maker!" Mancuso roared, the _Udaloy_ was big threat and he knew that, but the _Lada_ was an even bigger threat, mainly because first thanks to the sonar pings from the _Udaloy_ followed by it's own active sonar ping meant that she almost certainly had a damn near perfect firing solution, Mancuso needed to maneuver and increase speed so he could throw that targeting data off, the noise maker would almost certainly help in that regard as well and give him time for his fire control party to get a solution.

Several minutes ticked by. It was a race to see who would get the TMA solution first. "Ready to fire at Master-7!" The head of the Fire-Control Party shouted.

 _Gotcha ya bastard!_ Mancuso thought. "Open tube one! Fire tube one!" Mancuso barked.

"Yessir! Firing point procedures tube one!" The chief of the Fire-Control Party yelled. A few moments later a high-pitched shriek tore through the hull of the submarine. "Torpedo launched! Cleared and left the tube! Unit one is running hot, straight, and normal, sir!"

"Time till Unit One acquires Master-7?" Mancuso asked, knowing that the Udaloy could very well end them with a torpedo of it's own, or vector an ASW helicopter on them, or vector a May or Bear on them, or vector more submarines on them, or bring more surface ships at them.

"Eight minutes!" Came the reply. Mancuso bit back a mild curse, those eight minutes would likely feel like eight _hours_. But, with so many ships hunting him, he knew he had to pick his shots wisely, and conserve his ammo. While a single Mark 48 would certainly sink just about anything here, save the _Kirov_ class, the _Udaloy_ class, and possibly the _November_ s in one hit, it would _certainly_ mission-kill one, and remove it's capabilities and weapons from the table.

Sure enough, those eight minutes felt like eight damn hours. But finally the call came. "Unit-one has acquired Master-7!"

"Cut wires on Unit One and reload tube one with a Harpoon. We gotta an _Udaloy_ to kill." Mancuso ordered.

On sonar, Master-7, the sole remaining _Lada_ class sounded like a freight train at full throttle trying to outrun the lethal Mark 48 that was bearing down on it. It launched decoys, which the torpedo ignored, it bored in on the _Lada_ class, which was desperately trying to outrun the torpedo. The submarine attempted a high-speed turn, but the torpedo cut the corner and nailed the submarine just aft of the sail. The powerful Mark 48 blew an enormous wound in the hull of the submarine and the thing imploded violently.

With Master-7 out of the picture. Mancuso was thinking about his next move. The Lynchpin in all of this was that damn _Kirov_ class, it had to be the Flagship for this lethal HUK-Group. They killed that, then there chances of survival would go up by quite a bit. The problem was getting close enough to kill it, of course, thinning the damn herd of enemy aircraft would certainly help, but alas, the _Harder_ had no SLSAMs, Submarine Launched Surface to Air Missiles, onboard, just Mark 48 Heavy Torpedoes, Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles, and Tomahawk Cruise Missiles. Of course even coming to Periscope depth for a quick sweep with the missile fire control radar would be suicidal. He needed some breathing space in order to first get a few radar sweeps with their search radar and then to fire the missiles so they would have sufficient time to arm themselves and pull off the 'pop-up' maneuver.

" _Conn, sonar! Torpedoes in the water! Starboard side, bearing 320, range 7,800 yards!"_ Hendrix shouted.

"Launch countermeasures, helmsman make your course bearing 180, ahead flank, do not cavitate!" Mancuso barked.

The crew leaped to their tasks, the _Harder_ came around hard, engine noise increased, while two muffled shrieks of compressed air expelled the decoys. Still, Mancuso knew, even as the _Harder_ ran for eight minutes and thirty seconds at thirty-two knots to give the torpedoes the slip. That while killing more enemy submarines would improve their situation. They needed to kill some of damn _Udaloy_ s and _Neustrashimyys_ , but mainly the _Udaloy_ s because while the _Neustrashimyy_ was an ASW Frigate, the _Udaloy_ was way more capable and lethal than the Frigate as it was a dedicated ASW Destroyer. Doing that would _vastly_ improve the picture.

"Periscope depth, prepare to raise the UMM." Mancuso ordered. After the boat got to Periscope depth, Mancuso gave his next set of orders. "Up Observation scope!" Mancuso said.

The viewer for the Observation scope slid downward, while the Photonic Mast for the Observation scope shot upward. Mancuso grabbed it and ran a quick sweep. "Jesus!" He breathed as he spotted a May, not even eight kilometers away, the thing was burning hard to the east. He also noted that he could see quite a few ships, nine or ten, mostly mast tops, but he saw hull-down on the horizon at bearing 200 was an _Udaloy-II_ class ASW Destroyer and twelve kilometers away, was a pair of _Steregushchiy_ class Corvettes, those were at bearing 045.

For once the water around them was rather quiet. No active sonar pings, no splashes from sonobuoys entering the water, no high-pitched, high speed screws from enemy torpedoes, no splashes from depth charges entering the water. The enemy commander really knew what he was doing, if anything, something told Mancuso that powering up the surface-search radar was a _bad_ idea. However, he needed to kill some of the ASW ships to remove some of the enemy's ASW muscle.

"Raise the UMM. Power-up the radar, stand-by." Mancuso said. This was a dangerous move, mainly because even if the radar was powered on for a few seconds, anyone with an Electronic Support Measures Suite would be able to detect, identify, and then locate the source of the radiated radiation that the radar would kick-out. In others, even for a single sweep which lasted just six seconds, they could bring a whole bunch of shit down on their heads.

"Ready sir!" Cramer said.

"Energize! Give me two full sweeps!" Mancuso barked.

The powerful radar powered on, throwing massive amounts of energy out, for two 360-degree sweeps, each lasting six seconds. The picture it painted was interesting, there was twenty-eight contacts at varying distances, most of the ships were working in either groups of two or three, but five ships were actually working alone. Judging by the size of the returns, those five contacts were the _Udaloy-II_ s, a bit of a strange move, but as they had learned, the _Udaloy_ s were working in concert with at least one enemy submarine as well. Which meant that it stood to reason that other groups of enemy ships likely had at least one enemy submarine working in concert with them.

Still the information from the radar sweep was feed into the Mark 122 Fire Control Computer. The information was fed into the Harpoons that were in tubes one, four, five, and six. Prepare the Tomahawks." Mancuso ordered.

"Which ships do you want to hit with the Harpoons? Which ones do you want to hit with the Tomahawks?" Cramer asked.

"I want to peg the hull-down _Udaloy_ with our Harpoons as well as this _Udaloy_ ," Mancuso said tapping on the signature of an _Udaloy_ that was fifty kilometers away "and the three other _Udaloy_ s with Tomahawks, two missiles as well. See if you can also peg those two enemy frigates with them as well. Have them programed to skim the sea-surface" Mancuso ordered.

" _Conn, sonar! Aspect change on Master-12, Master-14, and Master-15! New contact bearing 040! Blade rate indicates ten knots! Sounds like a_ Kilo _! Designate Master-30!"_ Hendrix shouted in alarm.

"Crap!" Mancuso retorted. _Now shit gets interesting._ He thought as he bellowed for the scope to be lowered and for the Harpoons to be launched. Seconds after that, the distinctive scream of high-speed screws filled the water around them as the May dropped a torpedo, resulting in the _Harder_ to run away from the fish at flank speed while launching countermeasures and diving deep into the depths, considering the torpedo was dropped practically right on top of them, she sounded like a freight train doing it, alerting to her general position, deafening several whales, and utterly thrashing the hearing of a poor sonarman on a Romangan Submarine, some sixty kilometers away.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Pescara, the two new witches to be assigned to the _John Paul Jones_ arrived. "I think I see which ship we are being assigned too." Rebecca said as she pointed out the DDG.

"Yeah, it looks like one of those Blue Neuroi Warships, but the coloring is all wrong, it's grey and white, not black and blue; granted I can't see the deck that well from this angle. Plus the flag is all wrong, isn't the Blue Neuroi National Flag blue and white, with white on top and blue on the bottom, with a ring of six stars, with three blue stars on top and three white stars on the bottom?" Claudia asked, slightly confused.

"I believe so. The flag that ship is flying, it's similar to the Liberion National Flag, but instead of one large star, it has a dark blue field and I think a bunch of white five-pointed stars on it." Rebecca replied.

Suddenly a new voice, male, crackled over the radio. " _Lima-actual to Rodeo fourteen and fifteen we have you on visual."_ The voice was professional, with the distinctive air of an experienced air traffic control officer.

"Roger Lima-Actual." Rebecca and Claudia said in unison.

The landing sequence was a little odd, mainly because they were used to landing on an aircraft carrier, with several hundred feet of flight deck to come to a stop. However for this ship, they had to enter basically flare out right before landing, and cut power all the way back to idle, and land. The trick was trying to do it, so that momentum wouldn't take them right into the hanger and conversely most probably right into the back of the SH-60 Seahawk or the sole surviving Fire Scout-C UAV.

It took a couple of tries, mainly because the two witches hadn't really been trained in VTOL operations, they could hover and could do it in less than three seconds, which was bound to take anyone by surprise. Eventually, they managed to land. When the two witches got out of their strikers, and put down their weapons. They were quickly met by a man, whose rank insignia said he was the captain.

"Attention on deck!" Someone shouted and everyone came to attention.

"As you were." The man said and everyone relaxed and went back to their various tasks. Most of them appeared to be preparing the ship for departure.

"Sir! Ensign Rebecca Fencer reporting!" Rebecca said coming to attention.

"Ensign Claudia Powers reporting for duty, sir." Claudia said coming to attention as well.

"As you were. I am Captain Alex Hopper, commanding officer of the United States Navy _Bunker Hill_ class Guided Missile Destroyer USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-1006. Welcome aboard." The man said, introducing himself.

"Captain, this ship is a destroyer? With all do respect, she's big enough to be a light cruiser, but she only has one main gun. She barely qualifies as a frigate. Unless she's like those Blue Neuroi warships." Claudia said.

"You're correct in that regard ensign. The _John Paul Jones_ is exactly like the Blue Neuroi Warships, but we can give a a _Krif_ class Light Cruiser a run for it's money and we can kick the ass of both the _Nel_ class DDG and the _Dilos_ class Guided Missile Frigate. Hell, we have the capability to fight a _Roarer_ class Battlecruiser to a standstill and those things have a massive amount of missiles." Hopper said as he gestured for the two Witches to follow him.

"That's very impressive, is there anything else that makes the _John Paul Jones_ special? I mean, she doesn't look all that special." Rebecca asked.

"One of the things that makes the _John Paul Jones_ and her sisters so special is the fact that she can take off like a goddamned rumrunner with a turbocharged engine when we go to flank. Once we were drifting, listening for enemy submarines, when suddenly an enemy submarine launches four Anti-Ship Missiles at us. I order for us to go to flank, and were doing 30+ knots in less than two minutes. She has the acceleration profile similar to the goddamned _Dilos_ class Guided Missile Frigate. Her ability to move like that, it saved our asses a couple of times." Hopper said.

Rebecca and Claudia's jaws dropped. "Damn, if any of our Light Cruiser captains hear about what she's like. They will become very jealous, very fast. The same will probably be true for most destroyer captains as well, with the exception of Galian _Mogador_ and _Fantasque_ class Destroyers and the Fusoan _Shimakaze_ class Destroyer. Those things can take off like a rocket ship when going to flank. Having a top speed around 40 knots helps as well." Claudia remarked.

"Yeah, big problem is. My ship, while it's designed to take a good solid whack. We can't take a real massive whack like a bomb hit on the chin and keep going. The only armor we have is mere splinter protection in the form of Kevlar and I think Carbon Nanotubes. We take a direct hit from a bomb, heavy torpedo, or godforbid a Neuroi Beam or a Anti-Ship Missile, it will just open us up like a sardine can. The results when that happens are never pleasant or pretty." Hopper replied.

"Wait, so while you can take a solid punch from let's say a mine or something of that nature. Heavy ship-killing ordnance will tear you up pretty badly." Rebecca said.

"Exactly. However the thing is, they would have to hit us first. We have an advanced array of electronic countermeasures, simple visual countermeasures, plus a large amount of offensive and defensive weaponry. You following?" Hopper said.

"Yes, but I am wondering were we factor in to the multiple layers of defense this ship has." Claudia said, her voice curious.

"That's simple, if we come under large scale missile attack and defeat it. Or we take a big hit and lose launch capability for our missiles and a Large-Type Neuroi or even a Medium-Type Neuroi comes knocking. Well, the performance of Mount 51 was pathetic, it felt like we were throwing spitballs at the bastard. That's were you come in. However, other possible uses that I have in mind could be escorting the Seahawk or the Fire Scout on missions, just to make sure that a Neuroi Fighter doesn't frag it." Hopper said.

"Oh! Well that makes perfect sense, standard weapons like guns tend to struggle against their armor particularly AP and AA munitions, although HE and HEAT rounds are somewhat more effective against their armor." Claudia said realization dawning in her eyes.

"Were are we going to be berthed sir?" Rebecca asked.

Alex pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to Rebecca. "That piece of paper contains were your berthing space is, it's just a compartment number and a frame. Also on the back is the same deal but it's your normal duty station. If you get lost just flag down one of the crew members they will be more than happy to help. However some areas of the ship are off-limits, but that's mainly the Combat Information Center or CIC for short, if we are ever in drydock I will show you around CIC. Another place that's off-limits would be the engine room, for obvious reasons, it gets chaotic down there and the last thing the chief engineer needs is an curious butter bar ensign getting underfoot." Hopper paused and looked thoughtful before speaking again. "also the forward armory is off-limits as is one of the forward berthing compartments." He finished, rattling off the compartment number (I have no idea were the berthing spaces or the duty station for aviators who aren't in the air on a modern DDG is. Particularly for Frame and Compartment Number).

"Understood." Rebecca and Claudia stated. Hopper then glanced at his watch and frowned. "Well, I need to get to the bridge. Need to give the final orders to get the ship underway. In the meantime, I will leave you in the capable hands of my Chief Boatswain's Mate Walter Lynch although everyone here calls him either Boats, Bonsun, Beast, or The Beast." Alex said as another man, walked into view.

"Alright, Captain. I can take it from here." Beast said. Alex nodded before leaving.

"Well, since the Captain already gave away my identity. I guess, I just need to learn your names and then we can store your gear in the room for the pilots of the Seahawk. We have a few clear lockers mainly in case we have two smaller helicopters, Panthers onboard instead of the singular Seahawk, thus needing lockers for two crews. But after that, I will show you to your berthing space." Beast said.

He then showed them there lockers, where there leather pilot helmets were stored, followed by a quick trip to Armory 2, which had a fair amount of advanced weaponry that boggled the minds of the two witches.

"This is all standard issue kit?" Claudia asked.

"Yeah, hopefully we don't have to use it though." Beast replied.

"Why's that?" Rebecca asked.

"The wounds that the rounds we use inflict on people are pretty horrific, I mean with the shotgun, well it's a shotgun it's sort of expected. But rounds themselves are powerful and lethal despite their small size." Beast explained not going into detail.

"What do you mean that the rounds inflict pretty horrific wounds on people?" Claudia asked in a confused tone.

"Let's just say that these smaller rounds, they tend to tumble and sometimes fragment. This results in wounds that at best are recoverable from but leaves a lot of scar tissue. At worst, you're dead in just a few minutes if that." Beast said in a sullen tone.

"I see, let's hope then that we never have to use them against other people. Is there anything else we will need?" Rebecca asked.

"No, not really. Well, actually I noticed that your standard kit doesn't have a whistle or strobe light. That's fairly standard kit for our pilots mainly because it's extremely effective in signalling CSAR forces. Biggest problem we are going to have is that if you're forced to empty your stock of .45 ACP while we are at sea and thus out of range for being resupplied, we'll have to issue both of you our pistols." Beast said and Rebecca and Claudia nodded in understanding.

A sharp whistle pierced the air. The 1MC, " _All hands, this is the captain. Make final preparations to get underway._ "

Beast looked at them. "Well that's our cue. Let's get this show underway, if anything I will show you to first your berthing space and then your duty station. After that I got to get to mine. One thing you should know is that well this ship is big and while it doesn't look like it, it's actually really easy to get turned around." Beast said as he walked out, the two witches trailing after him.

Some eight minutes later, the USS _John Paul Jones_ DDG-1006 raised her anchor and then departed Pescara, heading out into the Adriatic Sea, angling her course southward toward the Mediterranean Sea proper.


End file.
